Robust Localization for Multi-robot Formations: An Experimental Evaluation of an Extended GM-PHD Filter

Michiaki Hirayama*, Alicja Wasik, Mitsuhiro Kamezaki, Alcherio Martinoli

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

This paper presents a thorough experimental evaluation of an extended Gaussian Mixture Probability Hypothesis Density filter which is able to provide state estimates for the maintenance of a multi-robot formation, even when the communication fails and the tracking data are insufficient for maintaining a stable formation. The filter incorporates, firstly, absolute poses exchanged by the robots, and secondly, the geometry of the desired formation. By combining communicated data, information about the formation, and sensory detections, the resulting algorithm preserves accuracy in the state estimates despite frequent occurrences of long-duration sensing occlusions, and provides the necessary state information when the communication is sporadic or suffers from short-term outage. Differently from our previous contributions, in which the tracking strategy has only been tested in simulation, in this paper we present the results of experiments with a real multi-robot system. The results confirm that the algorithm enables robust formation maintenance in cluttered environments, under conditions affected by sporadic communication and high measurement uncertainty.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationDistributed Autonomous Robotic Systems - 15th International Symposium, 2022
EditorsFumitoshi Matsuno, Shun-ichi Azuma, Masahito Yamamoto
PublisherSpringer Nature
Pages148-162
Number of pages15
ISBN (Print)9783030927899
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022
Event15th International Symposium on Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems, DARS 2021 and 4th International Symposium on Swarm Behavior and Bio-Inspired Robotics, SWARM 2021 - Virtual Online
Duration: 2021 Jun 12021 Jun 4

Publication series

NameSpringer Proceedings in Advanced Robotics
Volume22 SPAR
ISSN (Print)2511-1256
ISSN (Electronic)2511-1264

Conference

Conference15th International Symposium on Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems, DARS 2021 and 4th International Symposium on Swarm Behavior and Bio-Inspired Robotics, SWARM 2021
CityVirtual Online
Period21/6/121/6/4

Keywords

  • Cooperative localization
  • Formation control
  • Multi-robot tracking
  • Probability hypothesis density filter

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Control and Systems Engineering
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Engineering (miscellaneous)
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Applied Mathematics

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