A probabilistic approach to coordinated multi-robot indoor surveillance

In this paper we discuss the problem of monitoring and searching an indoor environment for an intruder with a group of mobile robots. We present a graph-based algorithm to coordinate a group of robots which takes the limitations and uncertainties of sensors into account and is able to find good coordination plans efficiently even for large environments. We analyze and compare the approach against other coordination strategies based on a new probabilistic framework that allows to evaluate the performance of any coordination strategy based on a probabilistic sensor model and a worst case behavior model for intruders. Using this framework we demonstrate the capabilities of the planning algorithm in several simulation experiments.