Cooperative robotic map correlation from relative position and terrain slope measurements

A method has been developed to register navigation to map coordinates using multiple robotic vehicles. The method involves measuring the relative positions of all the vehicles and correlating that template to the terrain map to generate candidate map registration values. The root sum squares (RSS) of the differences between the measured maps counterparts are computed for all possible positions of the vehicle template on the map. A lower threshold is set on the RSS differences to establish candidate locations. A grid of points around each vehicle location is established and correlation products, based on map-fitted north-south and east-west slopes for the individual vehicles over all unique candidate pairings, are computed. Vehicles demonstrating the most negatively (i.e., minimum) correlated product sums in the cardinal directions are moved and the cycle is repeated until location convergence is achieved.