An important assumption underlying virtually all approaches to multi-robot exploration is prior knowledge about their relative locations. This is due to the fact that robots need to merge their maps so as to coordinate their exploration strategies. The key step in map merging is to estimate the relative locations of the individual robots. This paper presents a novel approach to multi-robot map ...

Mapping in the GPS-denied environment is an important and challenging task in the field of robotics. In the large environment, mapping can be significantly accelerated by multiple robots exploring different parts of the environment. Accordingly, a key problem is how to integrate these local maps built by different robots into a single global map. In this paper, we propose an approach for simult...

Topic Maps are a standardized modelling approach for the semantic annotation and description of WWW resources. They enable an improved search and navigational access on information objects stored in semi-structured information spaces like the WWW. However, the according standards ISO 13250 and XTM (XML Topic Maps) lack formal semantics, several questions concerning e.g. subclassing, inheritance...

Abstract— The map merging problem in a robotic network consists of the construction of a global map of the environment using the partial (local) maps individually acquired by the robots. We build on ideas from distributed sensor fusion to provide an algorithmic solution to the map merging problem that uses the local maps as sensor measurements. We use a distributed average consensus algorithm t...

We address the problem of merging multiple noisy maps in the rescue environment. The problem is tackled by performing a stochastic search in the space of possible map transformations. The proposed technique has its roots in a motion planning algorithm we recent developed, and turns out to be a generalization of other search techniques like hill-climbing or simulated annealing. We provide the pr...

A set of robots mapping an area can potentially combine their information to produce a distributed map more efficiently than a single robot alone. We describe a general framework for distributed map building in the presence of uncertain communication. Within this framework, we then present a technical solution to the key decision problem of determining relative location within partial maps.

A map merging component is crucial for the proper functionality of a multi-robot system performing exploration, since it provides the means to integrate and distribute the most important information carried by the agents: the explored/covered space and its exact (depending on the SLAM accuracy) morphology. Map merging is a prerequisite for an intelligent multi-robot team aiming to deploy a smar...