9 accepted papers
Many robotic systems rely on visual sensing to accomplish simultaneously the tasks of state estimation, mapping, and path planning. One one hand, the usage of camera sensors represents a power-efficient and lightweight option for solving this problem. On the other hand, these tasks pose requirements…
We present a Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) framework specifically designed for planetary exploration. Our work is based on PROMETHEE II, which allows operators to add task-specific criteria and conditions. We extended this algorithm to improve its resource usage by reducing the number of can…
Future planetary missions will rely on rovers that can autonomously explore and navigate in unstructured environments. An essential element is the ability to recognize places that were already visited or mapped. In this work, we leverage the ability of stereo cameras to provide both visual and depth…
To enable long term exploration of extreme environments such as planetary surfaces, heterogeneous robotic teams need the ability to localize themselves on previously built maps. While the Localization and Mapping problem for single sessions can be efficiently solved with many state of the art soluti
Teams of mobile robots will play a crucial role in future missions to explore the surfaces of extraterrestrial bodies. Setting up infrastructure and taking scientific samples are expensive tasks when operating in distant, challenging, and unknown environments. In contrast to current single-robot spa
In the context of space missions and terrestrial applications, both mission goals and task implementations for autonomous robots are becoming increasingly complex. Thus, the challenge of monitoring the achievement of task objectives and checking the correctness of their implementation is becoming mo
A robotic system for search and rescue missions needs to efficiently explore and map new areas. In this paper, we present an integrated exploration strategy with active loop closing, which balances between the exploration speed and map quality. Specifically, it finds a trade-off between moving towar
Teams of mobile robots can be deployed in search and rescue missions to explore previously unknown environments. Methods for joint localization and mapping constitute the basis for (semi-)autonomous cooperative action, in particular when navigating in GPS-denied areas. As communication losses may oc…
Autonomous robots operating in semi- or unstructured environments, e.g. during search and rescue missions, require methods for online on-board creation of maps to support path planning and obstacle avoidance. Perception based on stereo cameras is well suited for mixed indoor/outdoor environments. Th…