A Cooperative Heterogeneous Mobile Wireless Mechatronic System

This paper describes a framework for controlling a heterogeneous wireless robotic network consisting of aerial and ground vehicles. By use of the term heterogeneous, we imply the synergy of multiple robotic platforms characterized by different dynamics and specialized sensing capabilities. Two main scenarios concerning wireless communications are presented: 1) a decentralized connectivity strategy in which a mesh of ground mobile routers swarms in a cluttered environment maintaining communication constraints based on spring-mass virtual physics, potential functions, and routing optimization and 2) an autonomous communications relay in GPS-denied environments via antenna diversity and extremum-seeking SNR optimization. For both scenarios, we validate the proposed methodologies by numerical simulations and experiments. One important feature of our test bed is that it can be used for both indoor and outdoor operations.