Abstract
A concurrent localization method for multiple robots using ultrasonic beacons is proposed. This method provides a high-accuracy solution using only low-price sensors. To measure the distance of a mobile robot from a beacon at a known position, the mobile robot alerts one beacon to send out an ultrasonic signal to measure the traveling time from the beacon to the mobile robot. When multiple robots requiring localization are moving in the same block, it is necessary to have a schedule to choose the measuring sequence in order to overcome constant ultrasonic signal interference among robots. However, the increased time delay needed to estimate the positions of multiple robots degrades the localization accuracy. To solve this problem, we propose an efficient localization algorithm for multiple robots, where the robots are in groups of one master robot and several slave robots. In this method, when a master robot calls a beacon, all the group robots simultaneously receive an identical ultrasonic signal to estimate their positions. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm has been verified through experiments.
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This work was presented in part and was awarded the Young Author Award at the 14th International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics, Oita, Japan, February 5–7, 2009
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Park, J., Cheong, J., Yang, T. et al. Concurrent localization of multiple robots. Artif Life Robotics 14, 297 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10015-009-0686-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10015-009-0686-x