Multiple robot simultaneous localization and mapping

Abstract

In this research, a decentralized platform for SLAM with multiple robots has been developed. An EKF-based single-robot SLAM is extended to multiple-robot SLAM with a novel occupancy grid map fusion algorithm. Map fusion is achieved through a multi-step process that includes image preprocessing, segmentation, cross correlation, approximating the relative transformation matrix, tuning of the transformation through the Radon image transform and similarity index, and then verification of the result using either map entropy or a verification index. Results are shown from tests performed in a real environment with multiple robotic platforms.