Local communication of multiple mobile robots: design of optimal communication area for cooperative tasks

This paper presents an optimal design for local communication between multiple mobile robots. In previous studies of local communication in multirobot systems, the area of communication was not designed using mathematical analysis, but only time-consuming simulations of multirobot communications. We analyzed the informa-tion transmission efficiency and created an optimal communication area that mini-mizes the information transmission time to multiple robots. This optimization com-prises two steps. First, we derive the ‘‘information transmission probability’ ’ for various task models. Next, the derived information transmission probability is used to minimize the information transmission time. The optimal communication design is tested for various tasks, using system parameters. The analytical results are further verified by using computer simulations of multirobot communications and experi-ments with local communication. Q 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. * To whom all correspondence should be addressed