Competitive Algorithms and System for Multi-Robot Exploration of Unknown Environments

We present an algorithm to explore an orthogonal polygon using a team of p robots. This algorithm combines ideas from information-theoretic exploration algorithms and computational geometry based exploration algorithms. The algorithm is based on a single-robot polygon exploration algorithm and a tree exploration algorithm. We show that the exploration time of our algorithm is competitive (as a function of p) with respect to the offline optimal exploration algorithm. We discuss how this strategy can be adapted to real-world settings to deal with noisy sensors. In addition to theoretical analysis, we investigate the performance of our algorithm through simulations for multiple robots and experiments with a single robot.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Computer Engineering

Department dc:contributor.department

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2017

Author dc:creator

• Premkumar, Aravind Preshant

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Tokekar, Pratap

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Stilwell, Daniel J.
• Raghvendra, Sharath

• Robotics
• Multi-robot Exploration

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:12666

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/78847