The interplay between networks and robotics: networked robots and robotic routers

In this work, we explore the interplay between robotics and networks. Robots can benefit from an embedded network and also the network can benefit from the mobility of the robots. We investigate the design space where the application is oriented towards robotics or networking, considering how much information about the environment is provided and what the sensing capabilities are. At one end, the robots can benefit from the resources of an environment-embedded network, in which robot sensing and communication is enhanced by the network. We consider the design and implementation of practical pursuit-evasion games with networked robots, where a communication network provides sensing-at-a-distance as well as a communication backbone that enables tighter coordination between pursuers. Using the theory of zero-sum games, we develop an algorithm that computes the minimal completion time strategy for multi-pursuit multi-evasion when all players make optimal decisions based on complete knowledge. We then describe the design of a real-world mobile robot-based pursuit evasion game. We validate our algorithms by experiments in a moderate-scale testbed in a challenging office environment. We then show that the network can also benefit from Robotics by taking advance of micro and macro motion. Robots can mitigate multi-path fading. We design a system that allows robots to cooperate and improve the real-world network throughput via a distributed cooperation framework. A mobile wireless network can also be quickly and autonomously deployed in urban search and rescue efforts, forming a communication substrate. We study the problem of determining the minimum number of mobile robots and how to position them so all clients are connected. Our approach to the problem is based on virtual potential fields where we treat each client as a virtual charged particle. We validate our algorithm with physical robots in an indoor environment and demonstrate that we are able to get feasible solutions.

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