Map Merging of OctoMaps using Fiducial Marker Pose Estimation for Multi-robot Exploration

Abstract

In recent years, the rapid advancement of robotics and autonomous systems has revolutionized various fields, including search and rescue operations, environmental monitoring, and industrial automation. One crucial challenge in these applications is the exploration and mapping of unknown environments using multiple robots. Multi-robot exploration holds immense potential for efficient and thorough coverage of vast and complex areas, enabling enhanced situational awareness and improved decision-making capabilities. The objective of this work was to propose a solution to the map merging of multi-robot systems when in rendezvous via inter-robot communications. The robot measurements are in the form of pose estimation of fiducial markers and refinement by Iterative Closest Point. Experiments to validate the methodology were conducted with results of successful merging of octree-based maps generated by two robots.