Leap-frog path design for multi-robot cooperative localization

We present a “leap-frog” path designed for a team of three robots performing cooperative localization. Two robots act as stationary measurement beacons while the third moves in a path that provides informative measurements. After completing the move, the roles of each robot are switched and the path is repeated. We demonstrate accurate localization using this path via a coverage experiment in which three robots successfully cover a 20m x 30m area. We report an approximate positional drift of 1.1m per robot over a travel distance of 140m. To our knowledge, this is one of the largest successful GPS-denied coverage experiments to date. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010.