Robot Swarming over the internet

TL;DR

A dual-testbed design is developed involving real robots and remote network communication, performing a cooperative swarming algorithm based on a modified Morse Potential, and results are obtained with real internet communication and virtual testbeds running in each lab.

Abstract

This paper considers cooperative control of robots involving two different testbed systems in remote locations with communication on the internet. This provides us the capability to exchange robots status like positions, velocities and directions needed for the swarming algorithm. The results show that all robots properly follow some leader defined one of the testbeds. Measurement of data exchange rates show no loss of packets, and average transfer delays stay within tolerance limits for practical applications. In our knowledge, the novelty of this paper concerns this kind of control over a large network like internet.

Figures (11)

• Figure 1: Concept of cooperative unmaned vehicles.
• Figure 2: UCLA testbed configuration.
• Figure 3: UCLA micro-car vehicle. Its size is $50.8mm\times 101.6mm\times 45mm$.
• Figure 4: UC testbed configuration. A Khepera III robot has a size of $130mm$ diameter and a height of $70mm$.
• Figure 5: Communication configuration between testbeds.