Supporting many-to-one communication in mobile multi-robot ad hoc sensing networks

We study the problem of supporting communication in mobile sensor networks formed by teams of mobile robots equipped with sensors. We assume that in addition to communicating with each other by implicit or environmental means, the robots are equipped with wireless communication capability and effectively form a mobile ad hoc network (MANET). However, unlike typical MANETs where the primary communication pattern is any-to-any, such mobile multi-robot sensing networks need to support sensing applications which exhibit a many-to-one communication pattern. We evaluate the ability of current ad hoc network routing protocols to support communication in such sensing networks using detailed simulations of 50 robots. We consider typical communication patterns that arise in sensing applications and their impact on success rates, routing overhead, and energy costs of the mobile sensor network.