Low-cost multi-robot exploration and mapping

Mobile robots can perform some of the more dangerous and laborious human tasks on Earth and throughout the solar system, many times with greater efficiency and accuracy, saving both time and resources. As we explore further away from Earth, higher levels of autonomy are also becoming more desired in such applications, one of them being distributed mapping. Smaller, less expensive mobile robots are becoming more prevalent, which introduces unique challenges in terms of limited sensing accuracy and onboard computing resources. This paper presents a low-cost approach to autonomous multi-robot mapping and exploration for unstructured environments. Platform design and implementation details are discussed, along with results from a planetary style environment. Results demonstrate that mobile robots capable of SLAM can be constructed for less than $1250, and similar concepts could be used for planetary missions.