Decentralized simultaneous localization and mapping for multiple aerial vehicles using range-only sensors

This paper presents an approach for decentralized range-only simultaneous localization and mapping (RO-SLAM) of a network of aerial vehicles and a set of static range-only sensors deployed in the environment. The paper makes use of a multi-hypothesis framework developed by the authors [1] in order to deal with the multiple hypotheses that are present in the early stages of the undelayed RO-SLAM, this paper extends the approach to consider the integration of landmark estimations provided by other aerial vehicles nearby the robot. The method will enable a significant reduction in the convergence time needed to remove wrong localization hypotheses for every range-only landmark and, as a results, a map with improved accuracy. The proposed approach is validated first in simulations and later on with real experiments involving real range-only sensors and two unmanned aerial vehicles.