Concurrent Control of Mobility and Communication in Multirobot Systems

We develop a hybrid system architecture that enables a team of mobile robots to complete a task in a complex environment by self-organizing into a multihop ad hoc network and solving the concurrent communication and mobility problem. The proposed system consists of a two-layer feedback loop. An outer loop performs infrequent global coordination and a local inner loop determines motion and communication variables. This system provides the lightweight coordination and responsiveness of decentralized systems while avoiding local minima. This allows a team to complete a task in complex environments while maintaining desired end-to-end data rates. The behavior of the system is evaluated in experiments that demonstrate: 1) successful task completion in complex environments; 2) achievement of equal or greater end-to-end data rates as compared to a centralized system; and 3) robustness to unexpected events such as motion restriction.