Toward Robotic Sensor Webs: Algorithms, Systems, and Experiments

This paper presents recent advances in multiagent sensing and operation in dynamic environments. Technology trends point towards a fusion of wireless sensor networks with robotic swarms of mobile robots. In this paper, we discuss the coordination and collaboration between networked robotic systems, featuring algorithms for cooperative operations such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) swarming. We have developed cooperative actions of groups of agents such as probabilistic pursuit-evasion game for search and rescue operations, protection of resources, and security applications. We have demonstrated a hierarchical system architecture which provides wide-range sensing capabilities to unmanned vehicles through spatially deployed wireless sensor networks, highlighting the potential collaboration between wireless sensor networks and unmanned vehicles. This paper also includes a short review of our current research efforts in heterogeneous sensor networks, which is being evolved into mobile sensor networks with swarm mobility. In a very essential way, this represents the fusion of mobility of ensembles with the network embedded systems, the robotic sensor web.