MR-SimExCoverage: Multi-robot Simultaneous Exploration and Coverage. (July 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Nair, Vishnu G; Guruprasad, K.R.
• Is Part Of: Computers & electrical engineering. Volume 85(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020-07
• Subjects: Multi-robot systems -- Path planning -- Exploration -- Coverage; Computer engineering -- Periodicals; Electrical engineering -- Periodicals; Electrical engineering -- Data processing -- Periodicals; Ordinateurs -- Conception et construction -- Périodiques; Électrotechnique -- Périodiques; Électrotechnique -- Informatique -- Périodiques; Computer engineering; Electrical engineering; Electrical engineering -- Data processing; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 621.302854
• DOI: 10.1016/j.compeleceng.2020.106680
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0045-7906

Abstract

Highlights: Combines exploration, mapping and coverage. Best utilization of onboard sensors such as long range distance sensors. Combines the advantages of offline and online coverage path planning. Graphical abstract: Abstract: In this paper, we present a novel problem of simultaneous exploration and area coverage by multiple cooperating mobile robots. As the robots cover an initially unknown region, they perform intermittent exploration of the region and build a map, which in turn is used to plan the coverage path. We use a Voronoi partition based multi-robot coverage strategy using the Manhattan distance metric to solve the coverage problem and a frontier based exploration strategy for exploration mapping. We provide results of simulation using Matlab/V-rep environments to demonstrate the proposed multi-robot simultaneous exploration and coverage (MR-SimExCoverage) problem using the spanning tree based coverage (STC) algorithm.