Distributed sensor databases for multi-robot teams

Abstract

We describe our implementation of a distributed sensor database that was designed to support the activities of teams of mobile robots as they explore an environment. Importantly, this approach effectively separates the process of acquiring sensor data from that of exploiting it. This allows us to develop applications where robots and human users can automatically discover and utilize sensor measurements acquired by other robots in the team. We also explain our approach to implementing distributed queries, an important capability that allows us to perform queries in a way that makes best use of the limited available communication bandwidth. Finally, we briefly describe how we have used this system to support situational awareness tasks.