Motion Synchronization in Mobile Robot Networks: Robustness

Motion synchronization in mobile robot networks is a fundamental task in distributed multi-robot collaboration. In this paper, we investigate the robustness of synchronous speeds against robot and communication failures, an important feature of distributed systems. A performance metric is proposed to represent the robustness of the robot teams based on complex networks theories. Moreover, a distributed topology control algorithm to improve the robustness metric of groups of robots by increasing the communication range temporarily is presented. When the new topology is constructed and is stable, the range for communicating is reduced to the original value. Finally, the results of simulation experiments have demonstrated the efficiency of the proposed control algorithm while robots and connections fail in a robot group