Title
A novel low-cost, limited-resource approach to autonomous multi-robot exploration and mapping
Abstract
Mobile robots are becoming more heavily used in environments where human involvement is limited, impossible, or dangerous. These robots perform some of the more laborious human tasks on Earth and throughout the solar system, simultaneously saving resources and offering automation. Higher levels of autonomy are also being sought in these applications, such as distributed exploration and mapping of unknown areas. Smaller, less expensive mobile robots are becoming more prevalent, which introduces unique challenges in terms of limited sensing accuracy and onboard computing resources. This paper presents a novel low-cost, limited-resource approach to autonomous multi-robot mapping and exploration in unstructured environments. Design and implementation details are presented, along with results from two planetary style environments. Results demonstrate that low-cost ($ 1250) mobile robots capable of simultaneous localization and mapping can be successfully constructed. The multi-robot system presented in this paper participated in the 2008 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) Space Robotics Challenge, receiving two awards for successfully completing the 'Onto the Surface' and 'Map the Environment' events in a simulated planetary environment. This work demonstrates not only that such systems are possible, but also that this direction of research is important and needs attention.
Year
DOI
Venue
2010
10.1016/j.robot.2009.09.014
Robotics and Autonomous Systems
Keywords
Field
DocType
Mobile robots,Distributed robots,Multi-robot team,Low-cost SLAM,Planetary exploration
Computer vision,Robot control,Simulation,Computer science,Ant robotics,Automation,Artificial intelligence,Simultaneous localization and mapping,Robot,Mobile robot,Robotics,Occupancy grid mapping
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
58
2
Robotics and Autonomous Systems
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
9
0.54
12
Authors
8
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Christopher M. Gifford1445.76
Russell Webb2111.32
James Bley390.54
Daniel Leung4607.35
Mark Calnon590.54
Joseph Makarewicz690.54
Bryan Banz790.54
Arvin Agah839754.11