Collaborative concurrent mapping and localization

Autonomous vehicles require the ability to build maps of an unknown environment while concurrently using these maps for navigation. Current algorithms for this concurrent mapping and localization (CML) problem have been implemented for single vehicles, but do not account for extra positional information available when multiple vehicles operate simultaneously. Multiple vehicles have the potential to map an environment more quickly and robustly than a single vehicle. This thesis presents a collaborative CML algorithm that merges sensor and navigation information from multiple autonomous vehicles. The algorithm presented is based on stochastic estimation and uses a feature-based approach to extract landmarks from the environment. The theoretical framework for the collaborative CML algorithm is presented, and a convergence theorem central to the cooperative CML problem is proved for the first time. This theorem quantifies the performance gains of collaboration, allowing for determination of the number of cooperating vehicles required to accomplish a task. A simulated implementation of the collaborative CML algorithm demonstrates substantial performance improvement over non-cooperative CML.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2001

Author dc:creator

• Fenwick, John William, 1977-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Michael E. Cleary.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/8575

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/8575