Current state of the art in distributed autonomous mobile robotics

As research progresses in distributed robotic systems, more and more aspects of multi-robot systems are being explored. This article surveys the current state of the art in distributed mobile robot systems. Our focus is principally on research that has been demonstrated in physical robot implementations. We have identified eight primary research topics within multi-robot systems - biological inspirations, communication, architectures, localization/mapping/exploration, object transport and manipulation, motion coordination, reconfigurable ro,bots, and learning - and discuss the current state of research in these areas. As we describe each research area, we identify some key open issues in multi-robot team research. We conclude by identifying several additional open research issues in distributed mobile robotic systems.