Localization of a Team of Heterogeneous Robots for a Distributed Sensing Task

This paper presents a methodology for localizing the members of a heterogeneous team of mobile robots in an unstructured and unknown environment. In this approach robots are being divided into two groups: (1) localizers, and (2) missioners. The localizers are equipped with precise non-contact sensors such as laser range finders and/or vision. Therefore, they can find the distance, bearing and orientation of the other robots with high accuracy, as long as they are in localizer's field of view. The missioners would be equipped with simple odometry and/or local range sensors (i.e., SONAR, Infrared etc.) for collision avoidance. All robots are capable of cross communication by passing messages via a network. When a missioner is being detected by a localizer, it receives a message from the localizer which contains missioner's precise position information. Hence it is able to update its belief about its position on fly. The effect of this methodology in a distributed sensing task in the context of solving a multi-depot traveling salesman problem (MDTSP) has been briefly addressed where missioners go through sub-optimal paths to their target positions being assigned through an auction process