Multi-robot exploration using wave front algorithm

Abstract

In this paper, an approach to multi-robot exploration where key issue is to decrease the exploration time is presented. A popular concept for the exploration problem is based on the notion of frontiers from where target points are allocated to multiple robots. Exploring an environment is then about entering into the unexplored area by moving towards the targets. To do so, they must have an optimal path planning algorithm that finds the shortest route with minimum time. Our main contributions are three fold: (1) a wave front-based path planning algorithm for robot navigations; (2) an assignment method to better distribute the robots over the environment and (3) a concept of frontiers pruning for reducing the computation burden. The proposed approach has been tested through computer simulation.