A scalable graph model and coordination algorithms for multi-robot systems

This paper presents a distributed model and the corresponding control algorithms for the cooperation and redeployment of mobile sensor networks. A mobile sensor network is composed of a collection of wireless connected mobile robots equipped with a variety of sensors. The system can be rapidly deployed to hostile environment, inaccessible terrains or disaster relief operations. The mobile sensor network is essentially a cooperative multi-robot system. Delaunay triangulation (DT) is used to define the geometrical relationship between neighboring sensor nodes. Based on this distributed model, this paper discusses a fault tolerant algorithm for autonomous self-deployment of the mobile robots. The algorithm considers the environment constraints, and the presence of obstacles. The convergence of this algorithm is analyzed. The distributed algorithm enables the system to reconfigure itself such that the area covered by the system can be enlarged. Simulation results have shown the effectiveness of the distributed model and the deployment algorithms