Dynamic Adaptive Wireless Networks with Autonomous Robot Nodes

多跳无线能力使得能够在未规划的环境和配置中在自治节点之间进行通信和协调。 与此同时，无线信道提出了动态操作条件的挑战、对高功率节点的功率约束、以及高级行为与较低级别信道特性之间的复杂交互（例如，增加的同步通信显著地降低了信道特性）。 这里提出的研究的主要目标是可扩展的，应用程序驱动的，无线网络服务使用的通信移动的节点的异构集合的算法的开发，测试和表征。 其中一些节点将是自主的（机器人），因为它们的运动将不受人类控制。 其他的将是便携式的，从而使它们依赖于人类的运输。 虽然工作的重点是移动的节点，但该项目也包括网络上的im移动的计算机。 该项目强调，大多数（虽然不是全部）的移动的节点将有适度的传感，计算和通信资源。 这项工作背后的主要科学动机是设计健壮、高效和可扩展的算法。 该项目假设依赖于本地交互的分布式算法具有许多引人注目的特征，从而导致这些属性。 在协调携带一些传感器的自主移动的节点的问题与引导网络中从源到汇的信息流的算法之间存在显著的重叠。 这两组算法都需要仔细设计，以提高鲁棒性、效率和可扩展性。 作为动机，该项目提出的实验部分的研究进行了一个试验台，它模拟了一些特点的城市震后的情况下，在建筑物。 实验中的传感器将在地理上分布（在建筑物内），并通过无线网络连接。 许多移动的节点将在很大程度上是自主的，作为易于访问的知识收集者和储存库，并在信息流和资源的调度和控制方面行使广泛的独立选择。 其他的移动的节点将由人携带在环境中。 该项目将研究规模（应用软件可容纳多少传感器节点）、容错（系统对传感器和/或通信丢失的鲁棒性如何）和效率（例如时间与服务质量）等问题。 作为NSF资助的一项为期一年的试点研究的一部分，该项目一直在对上述系统的基本问题进行初步研究。 该项目最近还收到了海军研究办公室提供的大量设备赠款，以支持这项工作的实验部分。 该项目已经确定了两个关键的未解决的子问题，是相关的总体目标：本地化和通信覆盖。 在这个建议中，该项目讨论了广泛的研究挑战，在该地区的通信和协调自主移动的节点。 然后，该项目集中在两个关键问题，作为具体的问题，将在研究中解决，并描述了一种方法，包括模拟和实验，系统地研究它们。

Multihop wireless capabilities are enabling communication and coordination among autonomous nodes in unplanned environments and configurations. At the same time wireless channels present challenges of dynamic operating conditions, power constraints for autonomously-powered nodes, and complicated interactions between high level behavior and lower level channel characteristics (e.g. increased synchronized communication significantly degrades channel characteristics). The major goal of the research proposed here is the development, testing, and characterization of algorithms for scalable, application-driven, wireless network services using a heterogeneous collection of communicating mobile nodes. Some of these nodes will be autonomous (robots) in that their movements will not be human-controlled. The others will be portable, thus making them dependent on humans for transportation. While the focus of the work is on the mobile nodes, the project includs immobile computers on the network as well. The project emphasizes that most (though not all) of the mobile nodes will have modest sensing, computational, and communication resources. The chief scientific motivation behind the work is the design of robust, efficient, and scalable algorithms. The project hypothesizes that distributed algorithms that rely on local interactions have many compelling characteristics, resulting in these properties. There is significant overlap between the problems of coordinating the autonomous mobile nodes that carry some of the sensors and the algorithms that direct the flow of information from sources(s)to sink(s) in the network. Both sets of algorithms need to be carefully designed to improve robustness, efficiency, and scalability. As motivation the project proposes that the experimental part of the research be conducted on a testbed which simulates some characteristics of an urban post-earthquake scenario in a building. The sensors in the experiments will be distributed geographically (within the building) and linked by a wireless network. Many of the mobile nodes will be largely autonomous, serving as easily-accessible knowledge collectors and repositories, and exercising a wide range of independent options in the dispatch and control of information flow and resources. Other mobile nodes will be carried about the environment by people. The project will study issues of scale (how many sensor nodes does the application software accommodate), fault tolerance (how robust is the system to loss of sensors and/or communication) and efficiency (e.g. time vs. quality of service). As part of a one-year pilot study funded by NSF, the project has been conducting initial research in the issues underlying a system such as the one above. The project also recently received a substantial equipment grant from the Office of Naval Research to support the experimental portion of this work. The project has identified two key unsolved sub-problems that are relevant to the overall goals: localization and communication coverage. In this proposal the project discusses the broad research challenges in the area of communication and coordination of autonomous mobile nodes. The project then focuses on the two key problems as concrete questions that will be addressed in the research and describes a method involving simulation and experimentation to study them systematically.