Communication QoS-Aware Navigation of Autonomous Robots for Effective Coordination

Abstract

Multi-robot coordination can be achieved by either implicit or explicit communication. Most multi-robot searching approaches (e.g., USAR) assume that robots maintain wireless communication with each other during searching. The use of explicit communication can ensure accuracy of the exchange of information between robots, and it is indispensable in some applications where a high degree of coordination is required, e.g., USAR, cooperative transportation. Communication-aware navigation helps in keeping the robots connected, and thereby they achieve effective coordination. However, the received signal strength index (RSSI) can be attenuated by obstacles like buildings and mountains present in the environment, and hence signal strength cannot be same at all spatial locations. For this reason, the navigation of robots needs to be guided to keep them connected. In this paper, we develop a method for enabling the robots to receive messages continuously from other robots via a base station or relay nodes across spatial locations during its movement in a wireless connected environment. We propose a communication QoS-aware algorithm to guide the navigation of the robots. An empirical evaluation shows that robots can traverse through the paths that include regions with high communication QoS value.