Co-operative Localisation and Mapping for Multiple UAVs in Unknown Environments

In this paper we demonstrate a co-operative path-planning algorithm for multi-vehicle simultaneous localisation and mapping (SLAM) that uses information-based measures to maximize the accuracy of a feature map which is constructed from terrain observation made by each vehicle. The SLAM algorithm is distributed amongst the vehicles where each vehicle shares locally built map information via a central communications node. This information is used to assist in localisation which in turn increases the accuracy of the map information each vehicle provides. Each vehicle communicates to the central node potential trajectories it can take and the associated map information it will provide. The central communications node then co-ordinates the actions of each platform such as to maximise the accuracy of the globally constructed map. The vehicles each perform SLAM using a combination of on-board inertial sensors and an on-board terrain sensor. Results are presented using a 6-DoF simulation of several UAVs over an initially unexplored terrain.