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arXiv · 2403.04021

Multi-Robot Autonomous Exploration and Mapping Under Localization Uncertainty with Expectation-Maximization

Yewei Huang·Xi Lin·Brendan Englot
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Abstract

We propose an autonomous exploration algorithm designed for decentralized multi-robot teams, which takes into account map and localization uncertainties of range-sensing mobile robots. Virtual landmarks are used to quantify the combined impact of process noise and sensor noise on map uncertainty. Additionally, we employ an iterative expectation-maximization inspired algorithm to assess the potential outcomes of both a local robot's and its neighbors' next-step actions. To evaluate the effectiveness of our framework, we conduct a comparative analysis with state-of-the-art algorithms. The results of our experiments show the proposed algorithm's capacity to strike a balance between curbing map uncertainty and achieving efficient task allocation among robots.

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Yewei Huang, Xi Lin, Brendan Englot. 2024-03-06. Multi-Robot Autonomous Exploration and Mapping Under Localization Uncertainty with Expectation-Maximization. https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.04021

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