COLA: a language to support communication between multiple cooperating vehicles

To support cooperation, communication between AUVs must move beyond passing streams of data. Cooperating AUVs must also be able to exchange information and request help from their collaborators. This communication must be effective despite low-bandwidth communication channels, high error rates, and limited computational effort available for processing messages. In addition, the AUVs which receive these messages must be able to interpret them in the context of their own information about the world. In this paper, the authors present COLA, a language for cooperating AUVs. The authors discuss how COLA addresses the special needs of underwater communication. The authors then show how such a language can be used in simulated missions.