Value-Based Communication Preservation for Mobile Robot Teams

Value-Based Communication Preservation (VBCP) is a behavior-based, computationally efficient approach to maintaining line-of-sight RF communication between menbers of robot teams while they simultaneously persue additional mission tasks in parallel. The goal of VBCP is, at each time step, to efficiently compute a movement direction that provides the best communication quality of service with the rest of the team. We use the motor schema approach where multiple movement recommendations are combined cooperatively to determine an action for the robot that meets multiple simultaneous navigation goals (e.g. maintain communication, avoid obstacles, move to the goal). VBCP uses information about the locations of other robots, real-time quality of service measurements and a map of the environment provided a priori to approximate an optimal direction in an efficient manner. In our experiments, VBCP maintains communication between members of a robotic team while traversing an urban environment in formation. Quantitative and qualitative results are demonstrated in simulation and physical robot teams.