Relative localization of swarm robotics based on the polar method

Abstract

This article proposed a simple and efficient method for relative localization of swarm robotics. Firstly, the relative localization module of the micro-robot is designed to be composed of a compass and several pairs of infrared transceiver sensors evenly arranged on the edge of the robot. Based on the existing relative localization method and combined with the relative localization module, an improved relative localization method for swarm robots named as polar method is proposed, which includes distance calculation, relative direction calculation, and coordinates conversion. After that, a set of localization rules is designed to apply this method to the swarm system, which mainly include establishment of reference coordinate system, localization of the adjacent layer of the seed robot, and localization between layers, so that the initial coordinates of all robots can be obtained directly with only one seed robot. Then we described the implementation process of dynamic localization of swarm robots based on the initial static localization in the edge detour motion mode. Finally, the feasibility and flexibility of this localization method are verified by experiments on the swarm robotic platform, and the localization method is applied to realize the shape formation of swarm robots.