(POSTER) Impact of Connectivity Degradation on Networked Robotic Swarm Cooperation

Razanne Abu-Aisheh, Myriana Rifai, Francesco Bronzino, Thomas Watteyne

Abstract: One of the most fundamental capabilities of swarm robotics is their ability to cooperate. This implies that swarm robots must exchange information with each other or with a centralized controller. However, this communication is often assumed to be perfect, an assumption that does not reflect real-world conditions, where impairments can affect the Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR) over wireless links. One essential application of swarm robotic cooperation is exploration and mapping in a timely and accurate manner. This paper studies how communication impairments can have a drastic impact on the performance of robotic swarms in critical missions such as exploration. We use an improved version of the Atlas algorithm to simulate the effect of various PDRs on the exploration mission execution performance, with the key indicator being mapping completion time. Our results show that the time it takes to complete area exploration increases exponentially as the PDR decreases linearly. Based on our results, we emphasise the importance of considering methods that minimize the delay caused by lossy communication when designing and implementing algorithms for robotic swarm exploration.