Cooperative Communication, Localization, Sensing and Control for Autonomous Robotic Networks

Networks composed of a myriad of autonomous robots have attracted increasing attention in recent years due to their enormous capability expansion from single robot systems. In these networks, robots benefit from the collaboration with each other to enhance their situation awareness for autonomous operation. For example, in an extraterrestrial exploration mission, a robotic swarm can collaboratively utilize the inter-robot communication system to propagate information, synchronize and navigate itself to achieve mission objectives like joint environmental sensing. In addition, each robot can decide and control its own trajectory, so that the aforementioned tasks are accomplished in a globally efficient manner. In this paper, we propose formation optimization strategies for autonomous robotic networks, which adapt to the mission demands on cooperative communication, localization and sensing. We also discuss three space exploration examples with different mission demands, which leads to distinct network formations. These three missions will be conceptually demonstrated in a space analog mission on the volcano Mount Etna in June 2022