Cooperative self-positioning system for multiple mobile robots

Detecting and correcting a difference of coordinate system definition among a team of robot is mandatory when robots operates in the same environment. In this paper we develop a system for sharing a common coordinate system. Comparing measuring results of same environment among multiple robots, it is possible to detect coordinate system error. We considered this approach and implemented a programming framework which shares a common coordinate system. This approach does not require any information about the environment in advance. Utilizing ultrasonic range finder with a flat wall detection algorithm is possible to implement the proposed framework. The implementation constraints the presence of a flat wall as a part of the environment in order to calculate the difference of coordinate system, already defined among the robots. Then it automatically corrects the difference of the definition of coordinate systems. The experimental result shows its functionality.