Discovery and monitoring of an environment using a plurality of robots

摘要

Techniques are provided for discovery and monitoring of an environment using a plurality of robots. A plurality of robots navigate an environment by determining a navigation buffer for each of the robots; and allowing each of the robots to navigate within the environment while maintaining a substantially minimum distance from other robots, wherein the substantially minimum distance corresponds to the navigation buffer, and wherein a size of each of the navigation buffers is reduced over time based on a percentage of the environment that remains to be navigated. The robots can also navigate an environment by obtaining a discretization of the environment to a plurality of discrete regions; and determining a next unvisited discrete region for one of the plurality of robots to explore in the exemplary environment using a breadth-first search. The plurality of discrete regions can be, for example, a plurality of real or virtual tiles.

主权项

1. A robot apparatus for navigating in an environment, comprising:
a memory; and at least one processing device, coupled to the memory, operative to: obtain a discretization of said environment to a plurality of discrete regions; determine, using one or more of said at least one processing device of said robot apparatus, a next unvisited discrete region in said environment for said robot apparatus to explore in said exemplary environment using one or more of a breadth-first search and a depth-first search; determine, using one or more of said at least one processing device of said robot apparatus, if at least a second robot encounters a conflict with a path in said environment of said robot apparatus to said next unvisited discrete region in said environment by processing one or more trees generated by said one or more of said breadth-first search and said depth-first search of said second robot; and in response to said conflict detected by processing said one or more trees, generate, using one or more of said at least one processing device of said robot apparatus, one or more of at least one new breadth-first search tree and at least one new depth-first search tree for at least one of said robot apparatus and said second robot, wherein at least one of said robot apparatus and said second robot navigates within said environment using one or more of said at least one new breadth-first search tree and said at least one new depth-first search tree.