Wireless control of a multihop mobile robot squad

Abstract

Wireless controls offer attractive features including flexibility, self-organization, and dynamic networking, especially in mobile control scenarios. At the same time, wireless controls pose new design challenges because network and control performance affect each other. We focus our study on a wireless, mobile, multihop, robot-control scenario and compare the applicability of standard routing protocols and two network-aware control methods in realistic simulations. The scenario is demanding - with high mobility causing link breaks - and stresses the routing and control algorithms. The system is modeled and evaluated on a platform for integrated control and communication co-simulator. The performance of the algorithms is evaluated not only at the network layer, but also from the application viewpoint, in this case the mobile robot-control system.