Robot swarms create and maintain short communication networks on their own
Towards Decentralized Formation of Minimum-Length Communication Networks Using Robot Swarms
Robotics
Summary
Keeping groups of robots connected through reliable communication is hard especially where there is no infrastructure like GPS or central control. This paper shows how robots can organize themselves using only local signals to form a communication network with as little wiring (or distance) as possible. The robots adjust their positions and connections continuously while ensuring they never lose contact. Tests with robot simulations and real robots show these self-built networks are nearly as efficient as those planned by a central computer. The method also saves extra robots for other tasks by using only those needed for communication.
What this means in practice
- •For field robotics teams: Deploy robot swarms that autonomously form efficient communication links in GPS-denied or underground environments.
- •For planetary exploration engineers: Use robot swarms to build adaptive relay networks on other planets without pre-mapped communication infrastructure.
Authors
Genki Miyauchi, Mohamed S. Talamali, Julian Rau, Roderich Groß
Abstract
Multi-robot missions in infrastructure-denied environments frequently rely on reliable communication links between spatially separated locations. We propose a fully decentralized framework for constructing and dynamically maintaining communication networks without centralized topology planning or global positioning infrastructure. Driven strictly by local interactions, robots reconfigure local network topologies and adjust their physical positions to minimize overall network length while adhering to communication constraints. Formal analysis shows that our local reconfiguration operations guarantee continuous network connectivity, strictly decrease network length with every branch transfer, and bound worst-case performance to the shortest starlike tree. Embodied simulations and physical multi-robot experiments confirm that our approach forms networks near the length of centrally computed Euclidean Steiner trees. Additionally, the system dynamically adapts to moving targets and optimizes deployment by utilizing only necessary connectors, preserving excess robots for auxiliary tasks. This work enables autonomous swarms to self-organize adaptive ad hoc communication infrastructure in communication-denied environments, which could support applications varying from subterranean exploration to planetary missions.