Abstract
In multi-robot exploration for real-world applications, the amount of communication available in a given environment can vary greatly, and has significant effects on the performance of the robot team. We compare algorithms which use three communication models, from unlimited global communication to unplanned, semi-random encounters between robots; and we evaluate each algorithms’ performance with different sized robot teams in three environments. We provide simulation results showing how the algorithms perform under optimal conditions, and discuss how real-world situations impact performance.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ahmadi, M., Stone, P.: A multi-robot system for continuous area sweeping tasks. In: Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pp. 1724–1729 (2006)
Amigoni, F., Banfi, J., Basilico, N.: Multirobot exploration of communication-restricted environments: a survey. IEEE Intell. Syst. 32(6), 48–57 (2017)
Batalin, M.A., Sukhatme, G.S.: The design and analysis of an efficient local algorithm for coverage and exploration based on sensor network deployment. IEEE Trans. Robot. 23(4), 661–675 (2007)
Brass, P., Cabrera-Mora, F., Gasparri, A., Xiao, J.: Multirobot tree and graph exploration. IEEE Trans. Robot. 27(4), 707–717 (2011)
Burgard, W., Moors, M., Stachniss, C., Schneider, F.E.: Coordinated multi-robot exploration. IEEE Trans. Robot. 21(3), 376–386 (2005)
Chand, P., Carnegie, D.A.: Mapping and exploration in a hierarchical heterogeneous multi-robot system using limited capability robots. Robot. Auton. Syst. 61(6), 565–579 (2013)
Choset, H.: Coverage for robotics—a survey of recent results. Ann. Math. Artif. Intell. 31(1), 113–126 (2001)
Doriya, R., Mishra, S., Gupta, S.: A brief survey and analysis of multi-robot communication and coordination. In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Computing, Communication and Automation (ICCCA), pp. 1014–1021 (2015)
ev3dev.org: ev3dev documentation (2017). http://www.ev3dev.org/docs/
Fazli, P., Davoodi, A., Mackworth, A.K.: Multi-robot repeated area coverage. Auton. Robots 34(4), 251–276 (2013)
Gage, D.W.: Command control for many-robot systems. In: Proceedings of the 19th Annual AUVS Technical Symposium (1992)
Galceran, E., Carreras, M.: A survey on coverage path planning for robotics. Robot. Auton. Syst. 61(12), 1258–1276 (2013)
Gerkey, B.P., Vaughan, R.T., Howard, A.: The player/stage project: tools for multi-robot and distributed sensor systems. In: Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Advanced Robotics (ICAR), pp. 317–323 (2003)
Hazon, N., Mieli, F., Kaminka, G.A.: Towards robust on-line multi-robot coverage. In: Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pp. 1710–1715 (2006)
Jensen, E.A., Gini, M.: Rolling dispersion for robot teams. In: Proceedings of the 23rd International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI), pp. 2473–2479 (2013)
Jensen, E., Lowmanstone, L., Gini, M.: Communication-restricted exploration for search teams. In: Proceedings of the 13th International Symposium on Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems (DARS), pp. 17–30 (2016)
Kantaros, Y., Zavlanos, M.M.: Distributed communication-aware coverage control by mobile sensor networks. Automatica 63, 209–220 (2016)
Latimer IV, D., Srinivasa, S., Lee-Shue, V., Sonne, S., Choset, H., Hurst, A.: Towards sensor based coverage with robot teams. In: Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), vol. 1, pp. 961–967 (2002)
LEGO: About ev3. https://www.lego.com/en-us/mindstorms/about-ev3. Accessed 26 Sep 2017
Ludwig, L., Gini, M.: Robotic swarm dispersion using wireless intensity signals. In: Proceedings of the International Symposium on Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems (DARS), pp. 135–144 (2006)
Mamei, M., Zambonelli, F.: Pervasive pheromone-based interaction with RFID tags. ACM Trans. Auton. Adapt. Syst. (TAAS) 2(2) (2007)
Mitchell, D., Corah, M., Chakraborty, N., Sycara, K., Michael, N.: Multi-robot long-term persistent coverage with fuel constrained robots. In: Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pp. 1093–1099 (2015)
Mizuguchi, T., Sugawara, K.: Proportion regulation in task allocation systems. IEICE Trans. Fundam. Electron. Commun. Comput. Sci. 89(10), 2745–2751 (2006)
Murphy, R.R.: Disaster Robotics. The MIT Press (2014)
Nieto-Granda, C., Rogers III, J.G., Christensen, H.I.: Coordination strategies for multi-robot exploration and mapping. Int. J. Robot. Res. 33(4), 519–533 (2014)
Rekleitis, I., New, A.P., Choset, H.: Distributed coverage of unknown/unstructured environments by mobile sensor networks. In: Multi-Robot Systems. From Swarms to Intelligent Automata Volume III: Proceedings from the 2005 International Workshop on Multi-Robot Systems, pp. 145–155 (2005)
Robin, C., Lacroix, S.: Multi-robot target detection and tracking: taxonomy and survey. Auton. Robots 40(4), 729–760 (2016)
Rogge, J.A., Aeyels, D.: A strategy for exploration with a multi-robot system. Inf. Control Autom. Robotics 24, 195–206 (2009)
Rooker, M.N., Birk, A.: Multi-robot exploration under the constraints of wireless networking. Control Eng. Pract. 15(4), 435–445 (2007)
Saeedi, S., Paull, L., Trentini, M., Seto, M., Li, H.: Map merging for multiple robots using Hough peak matching. Robot. Auton. Syst. 62(10), 1408–1424 (2014)
Stump, E., Jadbabaie, A., Kumar, V.: Connectivity management in mobile robot teams. In: Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pp. 1525–1530 (2008)
Sweatt, M., Ayoade, A., Han, Q., Steele, J., Al-Wahedi, K., Karki, H.: WiFi based communication and localization of an autonomous mobile robot for refinery inspection. In: Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pp. 4490–4495 (2015)
Viet, H.H., Dang, V.H., Choi, S., Chung, T.C.: BoB: an online coverage approach for multi-robot systems. Appl. Intell. 42(2), 157–173 (2015)
Wurm, K.M., Stachniss, C., Burgard, W.: Coordinated multi-robot exploration using a segmentation of the environment. In: Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), pp. 1160–1165 (2008)
Yan, Z., Fabresse, L., Laval, J., Bouraqadi, N.: Metrics for performance benchmarking of multi-robot exploration. In: Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), pp. 3407–3414 (2015)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Jensen, E.A., Gini, M. (2019). Effects of Communication Restriction on Online Multi-robot Exploration in Bounded Environments. In: Correll, N., Schwager, M., Otte, M. (eds) Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems. Springer Proceedings in Advanced Robotics, vol 9. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05816-6_33
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05816-6_33
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-05815-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-05816-6
eBook Packages: Intelligent Technologies and RoboticsIntelligent Technologies and Robotics (R0)