Multiple robots

Cooperative positioning system for multiple robots, CPS

For autonomous mobile robots, a high precision positioning method in unstructured and dynamically changing environments is indispensable. Dead reckoning is a popular method but due to the error accumulation from wheel slippage, its reliability is low for measurement of long distances especially on uneven surfaces. Another popular method is the landmark method, which estimates current position relative to known landmarks, but the landmark method's limitation is that it cannot be used in an uncharted environment. GPS (Global Positioning System) has high performance as a three-dimensional positioning system on the ground level. However, it cannot be used in the environment where radio waves cannot reach such as indoors or underground. To overcome these shortcomings, we have been proposing a new method called "Cooperative Positioning System (CPS)". The main concept of CPS is to divide the robots into two groups, A and B where group A remains stationary and acts as a landmark while group B moves and then group B stops and acts as a landmark for group A. This process is repeated until the target position is reached. Compared with dead reckoning, CPS has a far lower accumulation of positioning errors, and can also work in three dimensions. Furthermore, CPS employs inherent landmarks and therefore can be used in uncharted environments unlike the landmark method. We have developed several CPS machine models named CPS-I, CPS-II and CPS-III, and demonstrated their performance for several tasks, such as floor cleaning and surveying in an unknown environment.

fig.
photo CPS-I (1994) photo CPS-II (1996) photo CPS-III (1998) photo CPS-IV (1998)
photo CPS-V (2006) photo CPS-VI (2011) photo CPS-VII (2015) photo CPS-VIII (2017)
CPS-I CPS-II CPS-III
CPS-IV CPS-V rev.1 CPS-V
photo CPS-VI CPS-VII CPS-VIII

Papers

Soccer robots for RoboCup

We have been developing a robust localization technique for robocup middle league robots using omni-directional cameras.

Fusion
photo

Rescue robots

We have been developing a rescue robot system consisting of multiple robots.

Rescue robot system Stable step climbing Measured 3D model
(Shibuya station)
Motion control in 3D space Motion control in 3D space Step climbing using "tail"

Papers

Autonomous mobile sensor terminal "Portable Go"

We are developing autonomous mobile sensor terminals "Portable Go", which spread in informationally unstructured environment and guide other robots using laser range finder equipper on it.

See "Service robots" page for more information.

Multiple sensor terminal robots(Portable Go) Deplayment of multiple robots
Portable Go

Papers

  • Yuuta Watanabe, Akio Shigekane, Kohei Matsumoto, Akihiro Kawamura, Ryo Kurazume, Development of mobile sensor terminals "Portable Go" for navigation in informationally structured and unstructured environments, ROBOMECH Journal, Vol.X, No.X, 2019, DOI:10.1186/s40648-019-0134-1