Multistage Relay Network Topology using IEEE802.11ax for Construction of Multi-robot Environment

This paper describes an information gathering system comprising multiple mobile robots and a wireless sensor network. In general, a single robot searches an environment using a teleoperation system in a multistage relay network while maintaining communication quality. However, the search range of a single robot is limited, and it is difficult to gather comprehensive information in large-scale facilities. This paper proposes a multistage relay network topology using IEEE802.11ax for information gathering by multi-robot. In this multi-robot operation, a mobile robot carries wireless relay nodes and deploys them into the environment. After a network is constructed, each robot connects to this network and gathers information. An operator then controls each robot remotely while monitoring its end-to-end communication quality with each mobile robot in the network. This paper proposes a method assuming the end-to-end throughput with multiple mobile robots. The validity of the proposed method is then inspected via an evaluation experiment on multi-robot teleoperation. The experimental results show that the network constructed with the proposed topology is capable of maintaining the communication connectivity of more than three mobile robots.