Multi-robot collaborative radioactive source search based on particle fusion and adaptive step size

Abstract

Multi-robot with nuclear radiation detectors plays a key role in nuclear safety and emergency disposal of radioactive contamination. However, the existing multi-robot radioactive source search process requires a large amount of computation, resulting in low search efficiency. This paper proposes a collaborative search method for unknown radioactive source through multi-robot information fusion and free energy strategy with adaptive step size. We use the cognitive difference principle to selectively fuse the measurement information of other robots to obtain a preliminary estimate of the probability distribution of radioactive source. Then, the multiple robots conduct particle fusion according to preset conditions to obtain accurate parameters of the radioactive source. Lastly, all of the robots cooperate to complete the search task of unknown radioactive source step by step through a free energy strategy with adaptive step size. Experimental results show that the search success rate of the proposed algorithm is improved to more than 95% with an efficient search.