Distributed Multi-robot Source Seeking in Unknown Environments with Unknown Number of Sources

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Chen, Lingpeng, Kailas, Siva, Deolasee, Srujan, Luo, Wenhao, Sycara, Katia, Kim, Woojun
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Chen, Lingpeng
Kailas, Siva
Deolasee, Srujan
Luo, Wenhao
Sycara, Katia
Kim, Woojun
author_facet Chen, Lingpeng
Kailas, Siva
Deolasee, Srujan
Luo, Wenhao
Sycara, Katia
Kim, Woojun
contents We introduce a novel distributed source seeking framework, DIAS, designed for multi-robot systems in scenarios where the number of sources is unknown and potentially exceeds the number of robots. Traditional robotic source seeking methods typically focused on directing each robot to a specific strong source and may fall short in comprehensively identifying all potential sources. DIAS addresses this gap by introducing a hybrid controller that identifies the presence of sources and then alternates between exploration for data gathering and exploitation for guiding robots to identified sources. It further enhances search efficiency by dividing the environment into Voronoi cells and approximating source density functions based on Gaussian process regression. Additionally, DIAS can be integrated with existing source seeking algorithms. We compare DIAS with existing algorithms, including DoSS and GMES in simulated gas leakage scenarios where the number of sources outnumbers or is equal to the number of robots. The numerical results show that DIAS outperforms the baseline methods in both the efficiency of source identification by the robots and the accuracy of the estimated environmental density function.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_11048
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Distributed Multi-robot Source Seeking in Unknown Environments with Unknown Number of Sources
Chen, Lingpeng
Kailas, Siva
Deolasee, Srujan
Luo, Wenhao
Sycara, Katia
Kim, Woojun
Robotics
Multiagent Systems
We introduce a novel distributed source seeking framework, DIAS, designed for multi-robot systems in scenarios where the number of sources is unknown and potentially exceeds the number of robots. Traditional robotic source seeking methods typically focused on directing each robot to a specific strong source and may fall short in comprehensively identifying all potential sources. DIAS addresses this gap by introducing a hybrid controller that identifies the presence of sources and then alternates between exploration for data gathering and exploitation for guiding robots to identified sources. It further enhances search efficiency by dividing the environment into Voronoi cells and approximating source density functions based on Gaussian process regression. Additionally, DIAS can be integrated with existing source seeking algorithms. We compare DIAS with existing algorithms, including DoSS and GMES in simulated gas leakage scenarios where the number of sources outnumbers or is equal to the number of robots. The numerical results show that DIAS outperforms the baseline methods in both the efficiency of source identification by the robots and the accuracy of the estimated environmental density function.
title Distributed Multi-robot Source Seeking in Unknown Environments with Unknown Number of Sources
topic Robotics
Multiagent Systems
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.11048