We studied the cooperative localization algorithm in multirobot systems before. However, when we want to apply the algorithm in the realistic multirobot system, a lot of realistic issues need to be addressed. One of the critical issues is the assumption in communication.
Wireless Communication and Networking
This is a very old and standard problem in wireless communication. Basically, the better infrastructure provided, the better quality of the communication/network. In some scenarios, smart factories for example, it is not difficult to establish such infrastructure. However, for some applications of multirobot systems, such infrastructure does not exist. Robotic applications are often used for rescue and exploration, where the infrastructure is least established. In these scenarios, the communication networking of the multirobot system needs to be explicitly addressed.
One possible starting point is the multiple random access protocol. (Or an ad hoc network maybe) We can start with CSMA, since robots can sense.
What communication protocol should we use, regarding all the resources and constraints? How would the performance of multirobot algorithms change with various communication protocols?
Topology Control
This problem is similar to the traditional form control/trajectory/formation.
One direct example is the coverage problem while ensuring the communication networking. In the exploration setting, we want to maximize the coverage of the robot team, under the constraint that the robots are able to talk to each other.