Multi-robot system for exploration in an outdoor environment

Abstract

In this paper, we describe a multi-robot system for outdoor applications. The system contains several robots and a human operated base. Each robot is fully or semi-autonomous providing automatic functionalities for traveling and exploring the environment. In the current system, one ground unit and one flying unit is implemented, while the system can be expanded to contain more units. The primary applications for our system will be exploration, area mapping, and search for predefined targets, like marks and humans. The operation environment of the system will be in varying condition, setting high requirement for the system components and capabilities.