Communication Architecture for Cellular Robotic System

This paper describes one approach for the communication architecture of a "cellular robotic system (CEBOT)", which consists of a large number of autonomous robotic units or "cells." The strategy is based on the selection of a "master cell, " where the master cell is assumed as a coordinator in the system. The selection is made using "network energy" as an evaluation function, which is proposed in this paper and is based on the probability of the information flow in the network. We describe a mastering method which implies the determination of a master cell, and show the mastering method using the local sensitivity of the network energy, called "local energy sensitive estimation." The local sensitivity is defined as local network energy which takes only the influence of a cell adjacent to the master cell into consideration. The search for a master cell can be performed effectively. We show the simulation results of mastering.