Multi-robot Range-Only SLAM by Active Sensor Nodes for Urban Search and Rescue

Abstract

To jointly map an unknown environment with a team of autonomous robots is a challenging problem, particularly in large environments, as for example the area of devastation after a disaster. Under such conditions standard methods for Simultaneous Localization And Mapping (SLAM) are difficult to apply due to possible misinterpretations of sensor data, leading to erroneous data association for loop closure. We consider the problem of multi-robot range-only SLAM for robot teams by solving the data association problem with wireless sensor nodes that we designed for this purpose. The memory of these nodes is utilized for the exchange of map data between multiple robots, facilitating loop-closures on jointly generated maps. We introduce RSLAM, which is a variant of FastSlam, extended for range-only measurements and the multi-robot case. Maps are generated from robot odometry and range estimates, which are computed from the RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indication). The proposed method has been extensively tested in USARSim, which serves as basis for the Virtual Robots competition at RoboCup, and by real-world experiments with a team of mobile robots. The presented results indicates that the approach is capable of building consistent maps in presence of real sensor noise, as well as to improve mapping results of multiple robots by data sharing.KeywordsSensor NodeExtend Kalman FilterReceive Signal Strength IndicationLaser Range FinderActive Sensor NodeThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.