Chapter 4

Self-Configurable Mobile Robot Swarms: Adaptive Triangular Mesh Generation

Geunho Lee and Nak Young Chong

Abstract

We address the problem of dispersing a large number of autonomous mobile robots, for building wireless ad hoc sensor networks performing environmental monitoring and control. For this purpose, we propose the adaptive triangular mesh generation algorithm that enables robots to generate triangular meshes of various sizes, adapting to changing environmental conditions. A locally interacting, geometric technique allows each robot to generate a triangular mesh with its two neighbor robots. Specifically, we have assumed that robots are not allowed to have any identifiers, any pre-determined leaders or common coordinate systems, or any explicit communication. Under such minimal conditions, the positions of the robots were shown to converge to the desired distribution. This convergence was mathematically proven and also verified through extensive simulations. Our results indicate that the proposed algorithm can be applied to problems regarding the coverage of an area of interest by a swarm of mobile sensors.

Total Pages: 59-75 (17)

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