Self Contained Relative Localization with a Low-Cost Multi-Robot System
This addresses localization for low-cost robot swarms in GPS-denied environments, but it is incremental as it builds on existing UKF and sensing approaches.
The paper tackles the problem of relative localization in multi-robot systems without GPS or motion capture by presenting a centralized method using onboard sensors and beacons, achieving localization errors comparable to robot size.
A key limitation of current multi-robot systems is a lack of relative localization, particularly in environments without GPS or motion capture systems. This article presents a centralized method for relatively localizing a 2D swarm using sensors and beacons on the robots themselves. The UKF-based algorithm as well as the requisite novel and cost-effective sensing hardware are discussed. Comparisons with a motion capture system show that the method is capable of localization with errors on the order of the size of the robots.