Multi-robot exploration for search and rescue missions: A report of map building in RoboCupRescue 2009

Mobile robots may be able to aid rescue crews in dangerous environments during search and rescue missions after natural or man-made disasters. In 2006, we began a research project to realize mobile robots that can gather information rapidly at the first stage of a disaster. 3D mapping, which can be an important aid for rescue crews in strategizing rescue missions, is one of our important objectives. Some fundamental elements to enable 3D mapping have been developed. We attended RoboCupRescue 2009 to validate our integrated autonomous 3D mapping system. We demonstrated our mapping system using multiple-robots on the RoboCupRescue field. In this paper, we introduce our mapping system and report the results from the RoboCupRescue competition.