Distributed Intermittent Communication Control of Mobile Robot Networks Under Time-Critical Dynamic Tasks

In this paper, we develop a distributed intermittent communication framework for teams of mobile robots that are responsible for accomplishing time-critical dynamic tasks and sharing the collected information with all other robots and possibly also with a user. Specifically, we consider situations where the robot communication capabilities are not sufficient to maintain reliable and connected networks while the robots move to accomplish their tasks. In this case, intermittent communication protocols are necessary that allow the robots to temporarily disconnect from the network in order to accomplish their tasks free of communication constraints. We assume that the robots can only communicate with each other when they meet at common locations in space. Our proposed distributed control framework determines offline schedules of communication events and integrates them online with task planning. The resulting paths ensure task accomplishment and exchange of information among robots infinitely often at locations that minimize a user-specified metric. Simulation results corroborate the proposed distributed control framework.

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