Gain adaptation of networked mobile robot to compensate QoS deterioration

The performance of a robot operated over a data network does not only depend on a control algorithm used, but also on network conditions. Providing network QoS (quality-of-service) to a networked robot system could significantly improve its system performances. However, the network QoS can degrade due to several factors, such as congestion and interference, and can affect the overall system performances. We propose a gain adaptation approach to compensate deteriorative changes in network QoS in order to maintain the performances of a robot system as much as possible. The approach is demonstrated by path tracking control of networked differential drive mobile robot over a QoS enabled network. The simulation results show that when the gain adaptation is applied, the robot can effectively tolerate network QoS deterioration, and increase the overall system robustness. The concept of gain adaptation can be easily extended to other network-based control applications.