1 research outputs found
On Connectivity Preservation in Mobile Wireless Multi-Agent/Node Mesh Networks
2013 American Control Conference (ACC), Washington, DC, USA, June 17-19, 2013The paper considers the development of a mission
planning system for a so-called ‘non-cooperative’ multi-agent
network. The network comprises two classes of agent: primary
mission agents and relay agents. The primary mission agents
have predefined tasks to execute and operate autonomously
within the field of operation. Although these agents operate
independently, from a mission planning perspective the base
station is required to maintain contact. In order to ensure
this, relay agents are employed under the direct command of
the base station with the objective of maintaining connectivity.
This paper proposes an architecture to control the relay
agents in such a way that connectivity, as measured in terms
of the Fiedler eigenvalue, is maximized subject to the cost
of moving the relay agents. A model predictive control-like
layer is used to generate a set of way-points to position the
relay agents at specific places at specific instances of time to
maximize connectivity. These way-points are then converted
into continuous time paths for the relay agents to follow. A low
level sliding mode controller implemented on each relay agent
ensures that the proposed path is followed in a robust fashion