Multi-agent SLAM using ROSBots

A ROS package for multi agent SLAM using ROSBots 2.0 by Husarion.

Overview

This package contains launch files and nodes needed for collaborative SLAM by multiple agents in an unknown environment using ROSBots by Husarion.

Dependencies

Environment

• Ubuntu 18.04
• ROS Melodic

ROS packages:

• husarion_ros
• rosbot_description
• rosbot_ekf
• multirobot_map_merge
• gmapping
• explore_lite
• rplidar ros

Setup

A single central computer will act as a central hub (ROS master) and all the ROSBots will communicate with it by connecting to a common LAN network. Steps on setting up the communication network can be found here.

This can alternatively be aceived by Husarnet (a Peer-to-Peer VPN client) using Internet instead of the LAN network.

Usage

The central hub is used to SSH into each of the ROSbots to launch the required nodes.

    ssh husarion@192.168.0.11
    ssh husarion@192.168.0.22

Run the following commands on respective systems:

On central hub computer:

    roscore

On ROSBot 1:

    roslaunch multi_rosbot_SLAM robo1_explore.launch 

On ROSBot 2:

    roslaunch multi_rosbot_SLAM robo2_explore.launch 

Run Rviz on the central hub:

    rviz rviz/rosbot.rviz

To Save a completed merged map:

    rosrun map_server map_saver map:=/merged_map -f <output_filename>

Follow this link to see the visualization of multirobot_map_merge in action on rviz.

Image of rqt_tf_tree:

References:

• Husarion tutorials
• Multi Robot SLAM
• Multiple ROSBot Simulation
• Williams, C., & Schroeder, A. (2020). Utilizing ROS 1 and the Turtlebot3 in a Multi-Robot System. arXiv preprint arXiv:2011.10488.