Multi-Robot Movement Design Using the Number of Communication Links

This paper presents the design of dispersion movement and concentration movement for a multi-robot team to search for targets in an unknown environment. The goal of the dispersion movement is for the multi-robot team to spread out as widely as possible and explore any unknown targets without breaking the communication links among these robots. The movement direction is made based on only minimal available communication data. After one of the team members finding a target, other robots are commanded by the concentration algorithm to move to the same target location to, for example, retrieve the explored target or transport the target cooperatively. The only information used for designing the movement algorithms is the number of robots within the communication range of the robot. The proposed algorithms have been extensively tested by the simulation study. The simulation results demonstrate the feasibility and fast convergence of the proposed algorithms in several typical scenarios presented in this paper. Potential applications of the proposed algorithms include rescue in a damaged area, planetary exploration, military reconnaissance, and geophysical mapping.