Merging maps of multiple robots

Merging local maps, acquired by multiple robots, into a global map, (also known as map merging) is one of the important issues faced by virtually all cooperative exploration techniques. We present a novel and simple solution to the problem of map merging by reducing it to the problem of SLAM of a single ¿virtual¿ robot. The individual local maps and their shape information constitute the sensor information for the virtual robot. This approach allows us to adapt the framework of Rao-Blackwellized particle filtering used in SLAM of a single robot for the problem of map merging.