Simultaneous Collaborative Mapping Based on Low-Bandwidth Communication

Abstract

Multi-robot systems have become interesting for many robotic applications like cleaning, mowing and search and rescue (SAR) scenarios. Most applications require a consistent common map, e.g. for exploration area coverage or for the surveying task itself. Especially in absence of WiFi and in case of an autonomously operating swarm, this becomes a difficult problem. Therefore, we propose a multi-robot mapping system based on 868 MHz radio frequency modules. While other approaches only manage to map key features or communicate coarse approximations of submaps, we achieve consistent and accurate maps by exchanging small incremental updates. This way, our multiple robots obtain shared knowledge about the commonly processed area.