Cooperative Multi-Robot Systems A study of Vision-based 3-D Mapping using Information Theory

Building cooperatively 3-D maps of unknown environments is one of the application fields of multi-robot systems. This article addressesthatproblemthroughaprobabilisticapproachbasedoninformationtheory.Adistributedcooperativearchitecturemodel is formulated whereby robots exhibit cooperation through efficient information sharing. A probabilistic model of a 3-D map and a statistical sensor model are used to update the map upon range measurements, with an explicit representation of uncertainty through the definition of the map’s entropy. Each robot is able to build a 3-D map upon measurements from its own range sensor and is committed to cooperate with other robots by sharing useful measurements. An entropy-based measure of information utility is used to define a cooperation strategy for sharing useful information, without overwhelming communication resources with redundant or unnecessary information. Each robot reduces the map’s uncertainty by exploring maximum information viewpoi...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2005
• Where: ICRA
• Authors: Rui Rocha, Jorge Dias, Adriano Carvalho
• Keywords: 3-d Map, ICRA 2005, Robotics, Robots, Robots Exhibit Cooperation