Autonomous Navigation of Multiple Robots with Sensing and Communication Constraints Based on Mixed Reality

This paper presents a robotic navigation system that uses mixed reality concepts to develop sensing and communication virtual devices, based on the visual localization of the robot in the environment. The main objective of the navigation system is to provide conditions for the use of very simple robots with severe limitations on the mentioned peripheral devices for simulation, analysis and test of multi-robot applications. In an experiment with real robots, each one receives its virtual navigation skills in an independent way from the tool that emulates the function of such peripherals. Thus, the behavior of a group of robots, independently commanded, is implemented in the virtual environment and accomplished in the real world. An experiment composed by real multiple Sphero robots executing an exploratory task within an unknown dynamic environment is carried out to validate the proposed navigation system. The use of mixed reality concepts allows an easy implementation of cooperation mechanisms based on indirect communication skill and fuzzy controllers for the robots’ movement. The results confirm the feasibility of the proposed autonomous navigation system.