Authors: Marios Xanthidis, Bharat Joshi, Nare Karapetyan, Monika Roznere, Weihan Wang, James Johnson, Alberto {Quattrini Li}, Jesse Casana, Philippos Mordohai, Srihari Nelakuditi, Ioannis Rekleitis
Abstract: This paper introduces on-going work about a novel methodology for cooperative mapping of an underwater structure by a team of robots, focusing on accurate photorealistic mapping of shipwrecks. Submerged vessels present a history capsule and they appear all over the world; as such it is important to capture their state through visual sensors. The work in literature addresses the problem with a single expensive robot or robots with similar capabilities that loosely cooperate with each other. The proposed methodology utilizes vision as the primary sensor. Two types of robots, termed distal and proximal observers, having distinct roles, operate around the structure. The first type keeps a distance from the wreck providing a "bird’s"-eye-view of the wreck in sync with the pose of the vehicles of the other type. The second type operates near the wreck mapping in detail the exterior of the vessel. Preliminary results illustrate the potential of the proposed strategy.