Multi-robot Exploration Based on Market Approach and Immune Optimizing Strategy

A multi-robot system is used to explore an environment and create a map based on market approach. Data fusion is performed using Bayes theorem and then the local maps are updated. A diffusivity concept is defined to describe the robots' extent apart from one another. The immune optimizing strategy is introduced to select goal points since it is a problem of optimized combination. In order to minimize repeated coverage and improve the exploration efficiency, the evaluation function considers the cost, revenue and diffusivity. Simulation examples show that the proposed method is effective for the stated problem and the immune optimizing strategy is more efficient than other strategies.