Cooperative multi-robot navigation and mapping of unknown terrain

Abstract

We describe the hardware, software and sensor equipment for a fleet of mobile robots used for cooperative multi-robot navigation and mapping. This robot team was developed for the MAGIC 2010 Robotics Challenge and successfully made it through two down-selection processes to the finals, where it placed 4th. Our mobile robot design leverages off-the-shelf hardware and open source software with novel software contributions to realize cooperative navigation, mapping, reconnaissance, and surveillance tasks for a large urban environment.