This paper presents a novel robot swarming navigation algorithm in order to find the odor sources in an unknown environment, based on the ability of each swarm member to sense the odor. Each robot in the swarm has a cooperative localization system which uses wireless network as a mean of measuring the distance from the other robots. In this method, at least three robots act as stationary measurement beacons while the other robots of the swarm navigate in the environment towards the odor source. In the next step, the roles of the robots will be switched and some other robots will act as beacons. The experimental tests report a good result in finding the odor source and also the accuracy of localization system.

Exploration of an unknown environment is a fundamental concern in mobile robotics. This paper presents an approach for cooperative multi-robot exploration, fire searching and mapping in an unknown environment. The proposed approach aims to minimize the overall exploration time, making it possible to localize fire sources in an efficient way. In order to achieve this goal, the robots should cooperate in an effective way, so they can individually and simultaneously explore different areas of the environment while they identify fire sources. The proposed approach employs a decentralized frontier based exploration method which evaluates the cost-gain ratio to navigate to target way-points. The target way-points are obtained by an A* search variant algorithm. The potential field method is used to control the robots motion while avoiding obstacles. When a robot detects a fire, it estimates the flame's position by triangulation. The communication between the robots is done in a decentralized control way where they share the necessary data to generate the map of the environment and to perform cooperative actions in a behavioral decision making way. This paper presents simulation and experimental results of the proposed exploration and fire search method and concludes with a discussion of the obtained results and future improvements.