RADIATION MAPPING USING MULTIPLE ROBOTS

We present a motion planning methodology to allow for a group of mobile sensors to scan a given polygonal area and map the radiation levels over it. We assume low radiation levels, which implies that detectors obtain meaningful measurements at small distances, and that radiation detectors are carried around mounted on mobile robots. The area is discretized at a resolution suggested by the footprint of the detector, and then portions of it are allocated to different robots for mapping. Robots cover their allocated areas in an efficient manner, collecting enough measurements at each location to allow a certain confidence level about the measured intensity to be reached. The algorithm is complete, in the sense that all locations within the area of interest are visited and mapped, and efficient since locations are being visited only once.