Title
A Multilevel Fusion System For Multirobot 3-D Mapping Using Heterogeneous Sensors
Abstract
Operating multiple robots in an unstructured environment is challenging due to its high complexity and uncertainty. In such applications, the integration of individual maps generated by heterogeneous sensors is a critical problem, especially the fusion of sparse and dense maps. This paper proposes a general multilevel probabilistic framework to address the integrated map fusion problem, which is independent of sensor type and SLAM algorithm employed. The key novelty of this paper is the mathematical formulation of the overall map fusion problem and the derivation of its probabilistic decomposition. The framework provides a theoretical basis for computing the relative transformations amongst robots and merging probabilistic map information. Since the maps generated by heterogeneous sensors have different physical properties, an expectation-maximization-based map-matching algorithm is proposed which automatically determines the number of voxels to be associated. Then, a time-sequential map merging strategy is developed to generate a globally consistent map. The proposed approach is evaluated in various environments with heterogeneous sensors, which demonstrates its accuracy and versatility in 3-D multirobot map fusion missions.
Year
DOI
Venue
2020
10.1109/JSYST.2019.2927042
IEEE SYSTEMS JOURNAL
Keywords
DocType
Volume
Collaborative mapping, information fusion, multirobot systems, probability theory
Journal
14
Issue
ISSN
Citations 
1
1932-8184
0
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.34
0
7
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Yufeng Yue185.73
Chule Yang262.28
Yuanzhe Wang3107.65
P. G. C. N. Senarathne431.41
Jun Zhang51102188.11
Mingxing Wen625.44
Danwei Wang71529175.13