Distributed Infrastructure-Free Searching and Tracking: System Design and Localization Techniques

For an effective and scalable approach to searching and tracking targets in unknown environments, coordination among a team of robotic agents is crucial. This dissertation addresses the search and track problem in an infrastructure-free environment, devoid of GPS or tracking beacons, and operating under fully onboard sensing and processing constraints. These constraints enhance the system's scalability. To address these challenges, we first propose a fully distributed solution for an ad-hoc network of agents to cooperatively search for and monitor targets in an unknown, infrastructure-free environment. This solution integrates a distributed pheromone-based coverage control strategy with a distributed target selection mechanism. Second, to facilitate communication and coordination among agents, we introduce Reloki, an infrastructure-free UWB-based relative localization system. Reloki enables ranging and Angle of Arrival (AoA) based relative localization in 3D, thereby allowing the mobile robots to work together effectively.

Author

• Prince Mathew, Joseph

• Active Perception
• Multi-agent Systems
• Relative Localization
• UWB Localization

Identifier

hdl:1920/14406

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:MARS:1920/14406