Limited communication, multi-robot team based coverage

This paper presents an algorithm for the complete coverage of free space by a team of mobile robots. Our approach is based on a single robot coverage algorithm, which divides the target two-dimensional space into regions called cells, each of which can be covered with simple back-and-forth motions; the decomposition of free space in a collection of such cells is known as Boustrophedon decomposition. Single robot coverage is achieved by ensuring that the robot visits every cell. The new multi-robot coverage algorithm uses the same planar cell-based decomposition as the single robot approach, but provides extensions to handle how teams of robots cover a single cell and how teams are allocated among cells. This method allows planning to occur in a two-dimensional configuration space for a team of N robots. The robots operate under the restriction that communication between two robots is available only when they are within line of sight of each other.

[1]  Gregory Dudek,et al.  Multi-robot collaboration for robust exploration , 2004, Annals of Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence.

[2]  Howie Choset,et al.  Sensor-based Coverage of Unknown Environments: Incremental Construction of Morse Decompositions , 2002, Int. J. Robotics Res..

[3]  Howie Choset,et al.  Autonomous exploration via regions of interest , 2003, Proceedings 2003 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2003) (Cat. No.03CH37453).

[4]  Eiichi Yoshida,et al.  An algorithm of dividing a work area to multiple mobile robots , 1995, Proceedings 1995 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. Human Robot Interaction and Cooperative Robots.

[5]  Howie Choset,et al.  Critical point sensing in unknown environments , 2000, Proceedings 2000 ICRA. Millennium Conference. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. Symposia Proceedings (Cat. No.00CH37065).

[6]  Ralph L. Hollis,et al.  Distributed coverage of rectilinear environments , 2000 .

[7]  Wei Min Tao,et al.  A decentralized approach for cooperative sweeping by multiple mobile robots , 1998, Proceedings. 1998 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. Innovations in Theory, Practice and Applications (Cat. No.98CH36190).

[8]  F. Hara,et al.  Characteristics of object-searching and object-fetching behaviors of multi-robot system using local communication , 1999, IEEE SMC'99 Conference Proceedings. 1999 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (Cat. No.99CH37028).

[9]  Eiichi Yoshida,et al.  Cooperative sweeping by multiple mobile robots , 1996, Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[10]  Ming C. Lin,et al.  An opportunistic global path planner , 2005, Algorithmica.

[11]  Masaki Hilaga,et al.  Topological Modeling for Visualization , 1997 .

[12]  Siddhartha S. Srinivasa,et al.  Toward sensor-based coverage with robot teams , 2002, SPIE Optics East.

[13]  Gaurav S. Sukhatme,et al.  Most valuable player: a robot device server for distributed control , 2001, Proceedings 2001 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. Expanding the Societal Role of Robotics in the the Next Millennium (Cat. No.01CH37180).

[14]  Chaomin Luo,et al.  A real-time cooperative sweeping strategy for multiple cleaning robots , 2002, Proceedings of the IEEE Internatinal Symposium on Intelligent Control.

[15]  Donald D. Dudenhoeffer,et al.  A Robotic Swarm for Spill Finding and Perimeter Formation , 2002 .

[16]  Howie Choset,et al.  Coverage Path Planning: The Boustrophedon Cellular Decomposition , 1998 .

[17]  Gaurav S. Sukhatme,et al.  Spreading Out: A Local Approach to Multi-robot Coverage , 2002, DARS.

[18]  Israel A. Wagner,et al.  Distributed covering by ant-robots using evaporating traces , 1999, IEEE Trans. Robotics Autom..

[19]  Frank Dellaert,et al.  Intrinsic Localization and Mapping with 2 applications: Diffusion Mapping and Macro Polo localization , 2003, 2003 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.03CH37422).

[20]  Richard T. Vaughan,et al.  On device abstractions for portable, reusable robot code , 2003, Proceedings 2003 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2003) (Cat. No.03CH37453).