Maintaining network connectivity and performance in robot teams

Abstract

Abstract In this paper, we present an experimental study of strategies for maintaining end‐to‐end communication links for tasks such as surveillance, reconnaissance, and target search and identification, where team connectivity is required for situational awareness. Our main contributions are threefold: (a) We present the construction of a radio signal strength map that can be used to plan multi‐robot tasks, and also serve as useful perceptual information. We show how a nominal model of an urban environment obtained by aerial surveillance, is used to generate strategies for exploration. (b) We present reactive controllers for communication link maintenance; and (c) we consider the differences between monitoring signal strength versus data throughput. Experimental results, obtained using our multi‐robot testbed in three representative urban environments are presented with each of our main contributions. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.