Distributed Intermittent Connectivity Control of Mobile Robot Networks

In this paper we develop an intermittent communication framework for teams of mobile robots. Robots move along the edges of a mobility graph and communicate only when they meet at the vertices of this graph, giving rise to a dynamic communication network. We design distributed controllers for the robots that determine meeting times at the nodes of the mobility graph so that connectivity of the communication network is ensured over time, infinitely often. We show that this requirement can be captured by a global Linear Temporal Logic (LTL) formula that forces robots to meet infinitely often at the meeting points. To generate motion plans that satisfy the LTL expression, we propose a novel technique that approximately decomposes the global LTL formula into local LTL formulas and assigns them to the robots. Since the approximate decomposition of the LTL formula can result in conflicting robot behaviors, we develop a distributed conflict resolution scheme that generates conflict-free motion plans that satisfy the global LTL expression. By appropriately introducing delays in the execution of the generated motion plans we show that the proposed controllers can be executed asynchronously.

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