Localization of a Team of Heterogeneous Robots for a Distributed Sensing Task

This paper presents a methodology for localizing the members of a heterogeneous team of mobile robots in an unstructured and unknown environment. In this approach robots are being divided into two groups: (1) localizers, and (2) missioners. The localizers are equipped with precise non-contact sensors such as laser range finders and/or vision. Therefore, they can find the distance, bearing and orientation of the other robots with high accuracy, as long as they are in localizer´s field of view. The missioners would be equipped with simple odometry and/or local range sensors (i.e., SONAR, Infrared etc.) for collision avoidance. All robots are capable of cross communication by passing messages via a network. When a missioner is being detected by a localizer, it receives a message from the localizer which contains missioner´s precise position information. Hence it is able to update its belief about its position on fly. The effect of this methodology in a distributed sensing task in the context of solving a multi-depot traveling salesman problem (MDTSP) has been briefly addressed where missioners go through sub-optimal paths to their target positions being assigned through an auction process