Abstract

This paper describes a method for localizing the members of a mobile robot team, using only the robots themselves as landmarks. We assume that robots are equipped with sensors that allow them to measure the relative pose and identity of nearby robots, as well as sensors that allow them to measure changes in their own pose. Using a combination of maximum likelihood estimation and distributed numerical optimization, we can, for each robot, estimate the relative range, bearing, and orientation of every other robot in the team. This paper describes the basic formalism, its distributed implementation, and presents experimental results obtained using a team of four mobile robots.

Citations