Sharing and fusing landmark information in a team of autonomous robots

Damian M. Lyons

doi:10.1117/12.818363

13 April 2009 Sharing and fusing landmark information in a team of autonomous robots

Damian M. Lyons

Proceedings Volume 7345, Multisensor, Multisource Information Fusion: Architectures, Algorithms, and Applications 2009; 73450G (2009) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.818363
Event: SPIE Defense, Security, and Sensing, 2009, Orlando, Florida, United States

Abstract

A team of robots working to explore and map a space may need to share information about landmarks so as register local maps and to plan effective exploration strategies. In this paper we investigate the use of spatial histograms (spatiograms) as a common representation for exchanging landmark information between robots. Each robot can use sonar, stereo, laser and image information to identify potential landmarks. The sonar, laser and stereo information provide the spatial dimension of the spatiogram in a landmark-centered coordinate frame while video provides the image information. We call the result a terrain spatiogram. This representation can be shared between robots in a team to recognize landmarks and to fuse observations from multiple sensors or multiple platforms. We report experimental results sharing indoor and outdoor landmark information between a two different models of robot equipped with differently configured stereocameras and show that the terrain spatiogram (1) allows the robots to recognize landmarks seen only by the other with high confidence and, (2) allows multiple views of a landmark to be fused in a useful fashion.

Citation Download Citation

Damian M. Lyons "Sharing and fusing landmark information in a team of autonomous robots", Proc. SPIE 7345, Multisensor, Multisource Information Fusion: Architectures, Algorithms, and Applications 2009, 73450G (13 April 2009); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.818363

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