Ensuring ad hoc connectivity in distributed search with Robotic Darwinian Particle Swarms

Abstract

This paper presents an enforcing multi-hop network connectivity algorithm experimentally validated using a modified version of the Darwinian Particle Swarm Optimization (DPSO), denoted as RDPSO (Robotic DPSO) on groups of simulated robots performing a distributed exploration task. This work aims to overcome limitations of multi-robot systems (MRS) in difficult scenarios (e.g., search and rescue) concerning the need and the ability to actively maintain an available inter-robot communication channel, through the development of effective multi-robot cooperation without relying on a preexisting communication network. Although there is no linear relationship between the number of robots (i.e., nodes) and the maximum communication range, experimental results show that the decreased performance by the developed algorithm under communication constraints can be overcome by slightly increasing the number of robots as the maximum communication range is decreased.