Supporting Navigation in Multi-Robot Systems through Delay Tolerant Network Communication

In this paper we study a problem of navigation in networked multi-robot systems. The robots are deployed in a confined area, where they move around and solve tasks. They communicate with each other through an infrared communication device, so that an ad hoc network is formed among them. Due to the limited range and line of sight nature of the infrared communication, this network has intermittent connectivity. The question we address is how a particular robot can use this network to find a target location that is indicated by another robot (e.g., the other robot has identified a task to be serviced by the searching robot). All other robots are involved in tasks of their own, and do not change their movements to help the searching robot find its destination. However, they do offer support by forwarding messages over the network. We propose a new algorithm based on routing in ad hoc and delay tolerant networks that can run on the network formed between the robots and provide navigation information to the searching robot. We evaluate the validity of our approach both in simulation and through an implementation on a group of 16 e-puck robots.