A Dynamic Weighted Area Assignment Based on a Particle Filter for Active Cooperative Perception

This article addresses an Active cooperative perception problem for networked robots systems. Given a team of networked robots, the goal is finding a target using their inherent uncertain sensor data. The article proposes a particle filter to model the probability distribution of the position of the target, which is updated using detection measurements from all robots. Then, an information-theoretic approach based on the RRT* algorithm is used to determine the optimal robots trajectories that maximize the information gain while surveying the map. Finally, a dynamic area weighted allocation approach based on particle distribution and coordination variables is proposed to coordinate the networked robots in order to cooperate efficiently in this active perception problem. Simulated and real experimental results are provided to analyze, evaluate and validate the proposed approach.

[1]  Bruce Randall Donald,et al.  Algorithmic and Computational Robotics: New Directions , 2001 .

[2]  Zhe Xu,et al.  Distributed Multi-Robot Cooperation for Information Gathering Under Communication Constraints , 2018, 2018 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA).

[3]  Wolfram Burgard,et al.  Active Markov localization for mobile robots , 1998, Robotics Auton. Syst..

[4]  Randal W. Beard,et al.  Coordination Variables, Coordination Functions, and Cooperative-Timing Missions , 2005 .

[5]  Aníbal Ollero,et al.  Active sensing for range-only mapping using multiple hypothesis , 2010, 2010 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[6]  Randal W. Beard,et al.  Decentralized Perimeter Surveillance Using a Team of UAVs , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Robotics.

[7]  Wolfram Burgard,et al.  Cooperative robot localization and target tracking based on least squares minimization , 2013, 2013 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[8]  Todd D. Murphey,et al.  Optimal planning for target localization and coverage using range sensing , 2015, 2015 IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE).

[9]  Emilio Frazzoli,et al.  Sampling-based algorithms for optimal motion planning , 2011, Int. J. Robotics Res..

[10]  Vijay Kumar,et al.  Autonomous robotic exploration using a utility function based on Rényi’s general theory of entropy , 2017, Autonomous Robots.

[11]  A. Ollero,et al.  Multiple UAV cooperative searching operation using polygon area decomposition and efficient coverage algorithms , 2004, DARS.

[12]  Pedro U. Lima,et al.  Perception-driven multi-robot formation control , 2013, 2013 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[13]  Aníbal Ollero,et al.  A decentralized algorithm for area surveillance missions using a team of aerial robots with different sensing capabilities , 2014, 2014 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA).

[14]  Heinrich H. Bülthoff,et al.  Active Perception Based Formation Control for Multiple Aerial Vehicles , 2019, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters.

[15]  Pedro U. Lima,et al.  A Particle-Filter Approach for Active Perception in Networked Robot Systems , 2015, ICSR.

[16]  Xiaojun Geng Consensus-reaching of Multiple Robots with Fewer Interactions , 2009, 2009 WRI World Congress on Computer Science and Information Engineering.

[17]  Steven M. LaValle,et al.  Rapidly-Exploring Random Trees: Progress and Prospects , 2000 .

[18]  Hans Driessen,et al.  Particle filter based entropy , 2010, 2010 13th International Conference on Information Fusion.

[19]  Morgan Quigley,et al.  ROS: an open-source Robot Operating System , 2009, ICRA 2009.

[20]  Geoffrey A. Hollinger,et al.  Sampling-based robotic information gathering algorithms , 2014, Int. J. Robotics Res..

[21]  Aníbal Ollero,et al.  Decentralized multi-robot cooperation with auctioned POMDPs , 2012, 2012 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.