Towards a Unifying Information Theoretic Framework for Multi-Robot Exploration and Surveillance

Abstract

In this talk we discuss our recent work on a mathematical framework for pursuing exploration and surveillance tasks using multiple collaborating robots. We ground this framework in the first principles of information theory, and in doing so establish a unifying model that considers the inter-dependencies of system resources pertaining to robot mobility, sensing, and communication. The framework identifies metrics that characterize system performance and provides qualitative understanding of quantitative results. We show that exploration and surveillance can be considered close relatives who can both be described with the same framework, and as a result approaches developed for one task can adaptively (or even better simultaneously) achieve goals for the other.