The Robotics Institute

Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute

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Abstract

In this article, we present the design of a team of heterogeneous, centimeter-scale robots that collaborate to map and explore unknown environments. The robots, called Millibots, are configured from modular components that include sonar and IR sensors, camera, communication, computation, and mobility modules. Robots with different configurations use their special capabilities collaboratively to accomplish a given task. For mapping and exploration with multiple robots, it is critical to know the relative positions of each robot with respect to the others. We have developed a novel localization system that uses sonar-based distance measurements to determine the positions of all the robots in the group. With their positions known, we use an occupancy grid Bayesian mapping algorithm to combine the sensor data from multiple robots with different sensing modalities. Finally, we present the results of several mapping experiments conducted by a user-guided team of five robots operating in a room containing multiple obstacles.

Notes

Associated Center(s) / Consortia: Vision and Autonomous Systems Center and National Robotics Engineering Center

Associated Lab(s) / Group(s): Advanced Mechatronics Lab

Associated Project(s): Millibots

Number of pages: 21

Text Reference

Robert Grabowski, Luis Ernesto Navarro-Serment, Chris Paredis, and Pradeep Khosla, "Heterogeneous Teams of Modular Robots for Mapping and Exploration," Autonomous Robots - Special Issue on Heterogeneous Multirobot Systems, , 1999

BibTeX Reference

@article{Grabowski_1999_4305,
   author = "Robert Grabowski and Luis Ernesto Navarro-Serment and Chris Paredis and Pradeep Khosla",
   title = "Heterogeneous Teams of Modular Robots for Mapping and Exploration",
   journal = "Autonomous Robots - Special Issue on Heterogeneous Multirobot Systems",
   year = "1999",
}

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