Featured Application: In application fields where strong communication requirements do not condition the mission, the present approach represents a proper option for coping with real communication constraints, being more fault tolerant and still having good performance simultaneously. The exploration problem is a fundamental subject in autonomous mobile robotics that deals with achieving the complete coverage of a previously unknown environment. There are several scenarios where completing exploration of a zone is a main part of the mission. Due to the efficiency and robustness brought by multi-robot systems, exploration is usually done cooperatively. Wireless communication plays an important role in collaborative multi-robot strategies. Unfortunately, the assumption of stable communication and end-to-end connectivity may be easily compromised in real scenarios. In this paper, a novel auto-adaptive multi-objective strategy is followed to support the selection of tasks regarding both exploration performance and connectivity level. Compared with others, the proposed approach shows effectiveness and flexibility to tackle the multi-robot exploration problem, being capable of decreasing the last of disconnection periods without noticeable degradation of the completion exploration time.
The study of REF presented the auto-adaptive multi-objective strategy for multi-robot exploration, where the multi-objective concept consisted of two missions: a search of uncertainties and stable communication.
An Auto-Adaptive Multi-Objective Strategy for Multi-Robot Exploration of Constrained-Communication Environments
Applied Sciences
Engineering