A distributed multi-robot sensing system using an infrared location system

Distributed sensing refers to measuring systems where instead of one sensor multiple sensors are spatially distributed improving robustness of the system, increasing relevancy of the measurements and cutting costs since requiring smaller and less precise sensors. Spatially distributed sensors fuse their measurements into the same coordinates requiring relative positions of the sensors. In this paper, we present a distributed multi-robot sensing system in which relative poses (positions and orientations) among robots are estimated using an infrared location system. The relative positions are estimated using intensity and bearing measurements of the received infrared signals. The relative orientations are obtained by fusing position estimates among robots. The location system enables a group of robots to perform distributed and cooperative environment sensing by maintaining a given formation while the group measures distributions of light and magnetic field, for example. In the experiments, a group of three robots moves and collects spatial information (i.e. illuminance and compass heading) from the given environment. The information is stored into grid maps and illustrated in the figures presenting illuminance and compass heading. The experiments proved the feasibility of the distributed multi-robot sensing system for sensing applications where the environment requires moving platforms.