Distributed optimisation of communication capacity for networked robot systems

A system of networked robots can be sent into unknown environments to explore and search desired objects. The advantage of such a systems is that mobile robots can automatically organize communication channels from one robot to the other robot through an ad-hoc network of inter-connecting mobile robots. However, the challenge is how to maximize the network link capacity of such channels for information transmission through the network. This paper focuses on distributed optimization of communication capacity of networked robot systems. The developed algorithm guarantees that: (1) the connectivities of the mobile robots are well maintained to establish the communication link through the ad-hoc network; (2) the network is scalable and the network link capacity is adaptable to the number of nodes; (3) the network link capacity is improvable after the communication link is established; and (4) the computational complexity of each robot converges to a constant over time.