Multirobot System to Explore Unknown Environment with Connection Maintenance

Abstract

This paper addresses the problem of exploring an unknown environment using multiple robots and maintaining the communication among the team of robots. The existing exploration methods assume that the communication is maintained among the team of robots throughout the exploration process. However, this is not possible when the area to be explored is very large and when there is limited communication range. The presented exploration methods provide communication maintenance among the team of robots and maintain coordination. Three different approaches are presented for exploration. They are centralized approach, leader-follower approach, and ad hoc approach. The concept of centralized approach is developed where the base station is connected to all the robots in the team. The concept of leader-follower approach is developed, where among the team of robots, a leader will be selected. The concept of ad hoc approach is developed in which even though the robots are not within the communication range of one another, communication will occur through ad hoc network. The performance evaluation is done for the above three approaches based on the path length, exploration time, and total number of cycles required to explore the complete area. Systematic approach is used to examine the effect of influence of the exploration parameters like the number of robots, communication range of a robot, and sensor range of a robot on the performance metrics. It is investigated that when there is increase in the exploration parameters, then the exploration time is reduced.