Collaboration Layer for Robots in Mobile Ad-hoc Networks

In many applications multiple robots in Mobile Ad-hoc Networks are required tocollaborate in order to solve a task. This paper shows by proof of concept that a CollaborationLayer can be modelled and designed to handle the collaborative communication, which enablesrobots in small to medium size networks to solve tasks collaboratively. In this proposal theCollaboration Layer is modelled to handle service and position discovery, group management,and synchronisation among robots, but the layer is also designed to be extendable. Basedon this model of the Collaboration Layer, generic services are provided to the applicationrunning on the robot. The services are generic because they can be used by many differentapplications, independent of the task to be solved. Likewise, specific services are requested fromthe underlying Virtual Machine, such as broadcast, multicast, and reliable unicast. A prototypeof the Collaboration Layer has been developed to run in a simulated environment and testedin an evaluation scenario. In the scenario five robots solve the tasks of vacuum cleaning andentrance guarding, which involves the ability to discover potential co-workers, form groups, shiftfrom one group to another, and communicate among group members. The successful outcomeof the evaluation scenario indicates that a generic Collaboration Layer may be realisable.