Wireless Communication

There are a number of tasks where a self-configuring network based on wireless communication is helpful for a group of autonomous mobile robots or a single robot and a host computer:

• 1. To allow robots to communicate with each other for example, sharing sensor data or cooperating on a common task or devising a shared plan.

• 2. To remote-control one or several robots For example, giving low-level driving commands or specifying high-level goals to be achieved.

• 3. To monitor robot sensor data For example, displaying camera data from one or more robots or recording a robot’s distance sensor data over time.

• 4. To run a robot with off-line processing For example, combining the two previous points, each sensor data packet is sent to a host where all computation takes place, the resulting driving commands being relayed back to the robot.

• 5. To create a monitoring console for single or multiple robots For example, monitoring each robot’s position, orientation, and status in a multi-robot scenario in a common environment. This will allow a postmortem analysis of a robot team’s performance and effectiveness for a particular task.