Localization for mobile robot teams using maximum likelihood estimation

This paper describes a method for localizing the members of a mobile robot team, using only the robots themselves as landmarks. That is, we describe a method whereby each robot can determine the relative range, bearing and orientation of every other robot in the team, without the use of GPS, external landmarks, or instrumentation of the environment. Our method assumes that each robot is able to measure the relative pose of nearby robots, together with changes in its own pose; using a combination of maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) and numerical optimization, we can subsequently infer the relative pose of every robot in the team. This paper describes the basic formalism, its practical implementation, and presents experimental results obtained using a team of four mobile robots.