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mrgs: A Multi-Robot SLAM Framework for ROS with Efficient Information Sharing

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Robot Operating System (ROS)

Part of the book series: Studies in Computational Intelligence ((SCI,volume 895))

Abstract

The exploration of unknown environments is a particularly and intuitively detachable problem, allowing the division of robotic teams into smaller groups, or even into individuals, which explore different areas in the environment. While exploring, the team can discretely reassemble and build a joint representation of the region. However, this approach gives rise to a new set of problems, such as communication, synchronization and information fusion. This work presents mrgs, an open source framework for Multi-Robot SLAM. We propose a solution that seeks to provide any system capable of performing single-robot SLAM with the ability to efficiently communicate with its teammates and to build a global representation of the environment based on the information it exchanges with its peers. The solution is validated through experiments conducted over real-world data and we analyze its performance in terms of scalability and communication efficiency.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    http://wiki.ros.org/gmapping.

  2. 2.

    http://wiki.ros.org/karto.

  3. 3.

    http://wiki.ros.org/hector_mapping.

  4. 4.

    http://wiki.ros.org/cartographer.

  5. 5.

    http://wiki.ros.org/roscore.

  6. 6.

    http://wiki.ros.org/sig/Multimaster.

  7. 7.

    http://wiki.ros.org/wifi_comm.

  8. 8.

    Available at https://github.com/lz4/lz4.

  9. 9.

    The mrgs framework is openly available at https://github.com/gondsm/mrgs.

  10. 10.

    The guidelines are available at http://wiki.ros.org/CppStyleGuide.

  11. 11.

    http://wiki.ros.org/melodic/Installation/Ubuntu.

  12. 12.

    It is important to note that, since mrgs is still under heavy development, it is possible that the general operating guidelines for the system change over time. As such, this text includes the most generic instructions necessary, with all detail being included in the project’s repository. In case of conflict, the instructions on the repository should take precedence, as they will be significantly more up to date.

  13. 13.

    Namely the rosbag tool, described at http://wiki.ros.org/rosbag.

  14. 14.

    https://drive.google.com/open?id=18jy5uftf5n-CqTDRJKNVOdtcd13BGPkw.

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Acknowledgements

We are sincerely thankful for the contributions on the free and open source frameworks adopted in this work, particularly: Giorgio Grisetti for his work on RBPF SLAM, Brian Gerkey and Vincent Rabaud for porting and maintaining GMapping for ROS, Stefan Kohlbrecher for the design and development of Hector Mapping for ROS, SRI International for Karto SLAM, and its maintainers for ROS over the years (Bhaskara Marthi, Michael Ferguson, Luc Bettaieb and Russell Toris), and to the overall ROS community. This work was supported by the Seguranças robóTicos coOPerativos (STOP) research project (ref. CENTRO-01-0247-FEDER-017562), co-funded by the “Agência Nacional de Inovação” within the Portugal2020 programme.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ingeniarius, Ltd., R. Coronel Veiga Simão, Edifício B CTCV, 3025-307, Coimbra, Portugal

    Gonçalo S. Martins

  2. Institute of Systems and Robotics, University of Coimbra, Pólo II, Coimbra, Portugal

    David Portugal & Rui P. Rocha

Authors
  1. Gonçalo S. Martins
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  2. David Portugal
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  3. Rui P. Rocha
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Correspondence to Gonçalo S. Martins .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. College of Computer Science and Information Systems, Prince Sultan University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Anis Koubaa

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Martins, G.S., Portugal, D., Rocha, R.P. (2021). mrgs: A Multi-Robot SLAM Framework for ROS with Efficient Information Sharing. In: Koubaa, A. (eds) Robot Operating System (ROS). Studies in Computational Intelligence, vol 895. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45956-7_3

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