Multi-robot rendezvous and exploration are fundamental challenges in the domain of mobile robotic systems. This paper addresses multi-robot rendezvous within an initially unknown environment where communication is only possible after the rendezvous. Traditionally, exploration has been focused on rapidly mapping the environment, often leading to suboptimal rendezvous performance in later stages. We adapt a standard frontier-based exploration technique to integrate exploration and rendezvous into a unified strategy, with a mechanism that allows robots to re-visit previously explored regions thus enhancing rendezvous opportunities. We validate our approach in 3D realistic simulations using ROS, showcasing its effectiveness in achieving faster rendezvous times compared to exploration strategies.

翻译：多机器人汇合与探索是移动机器人系统领域的基础性挑战。本文研究在初始未知环境中，仅在汇合后才能建立通信条件下的多机器人汇合问题。传统探索方法侧重于快速构建环境地图，这往往导致后续汇合性能欠佳。我们改进了一种标准的前沿探索技术，将探索与汇合整合为统一策略，并引入允许机器人重访已探索区域的机制，从而提升汇合机会。我们基于ROS平台在三维逼真仿真环境中验证了所提方法，结果表明相较于传统探索策略，该方法能显著缩短汇合时间。