Multirobot Decentralized Collaborative SLAM in Planetary Analogue Environments: Dataset, Challenges, and Lessons Learned

Decentralized Collaborative Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (C-SLAM) is essential to enable multi-robot missions in unknown environments without relying on pre-existing localization and communication infrastructure. This technology is anticipated to play a key role in the exploration of the Moon, Mars, and other planets. In this paper, we share insights and lessons learned from C-SLAM experiments involving three robots operating on a Mars analogue terrain and communicating over an ad-hoc network. We examine the impact of limited and intermittent communication on C-SLAM performance, as well as the unique localization challenges posed by planetary-like environments. Additionally, we introduce a novel dataset collected during our experiments, which includes real-time peer-to-peer inter-robot throughput and latency measurements. This dataset aims to support future research on communication-constrained, decentralized multi-robot operations.