English

Relative Position Estimation in Multi-Agent Systems Using Attitude-Coupled Range Measurements

Robotics 2022-07-19 v1

Abstract

The ability to accurately estimate the position of robotic agents relative to one another, in possibly GPS-denied environments, is crucial to execute collaborative tasks. Inter-agent range measurements are available at a low cost, due to technologies such as ultra-wideband radio. However, the task of three-dimensional relative position estimation using range measurements in multi-agent systems suffers from unobservabilities. This letter presents a sufficient condition for the observability of the relative positions, and satisfies the condition using a simple framework with only range measurements, an accelerometer, a rate gyro, and a magnetometer. The framework has been tested in simulation and in experiments, where 40-50 cm positioning accuracy is achieved using inexpensive off-the-shelf hardware.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2207.07993,
  title  = {Relative Position Estimation in Multi-Agent Systems Using Attitude-Coupled Range Measurements},
  author = {Mohammed Shalaby and Charles Champagne Cossette and James Richard Forbes and Jerome Le Ny},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2207.07993},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

7 pages, 10 figures, published in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters

R2 v1 2026-06-25T00:58:31.159Z