Localization for Mobile Robot Teams: A Maximum Likelihood Approach

This paper describes a method for localizing the members of a mobile robot team, using only the robots themselves as landmarks. We assume that robots are equipped with sensors that allow them to measure the relative pose and identity of nearby robots, as well as sensors that allow them to measure changes in their own pose. Using a combination of maximum likelihood estimation and numerical optimization, we can, for each robot, estimate the relative range, bearing and orientation of every other robot in the team. This paper describes the basic formalism and presents experimental results to validate the approach.

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