Joint Control of Mobility and Communications in Networks of Robots

Most coordinated tasks performed by teams of mobile robots, require reliable communications between the members of the team. Therefore, task accomplishment requires that robots navigate their environment with their collective movement restricted to formations that guarantee integrity of the communication network. Maintaining this communication capability induces physical constraints on trajectories but also requires determination of communication variables like routes and transmitted powers. The development of theory and algorithms for joint control of mobility and communications is therefore necessary to facilitate efficient design of mobile autonomous systems. In this paper we address this challenge using a hybrid approach, where continuous motion controllers based on potential fields interact with discrete optimization of the communication variables that determine motion control. The result is a muti-robot network that deploys itself to optimize communications while accomplishing additional tasks. Our definition of network integrity differs from existing approaches in that it is not based on the topology of the network but on metrics that are of interest to the performance of communication between robots or between robots and a fixed infrastructure.