We highlight research issues for wireless networking in aerial systems consisting of multiple small autonomous drones. Among these challenges are video streaming, synchronization, security and safety, and interference management.
Mobile robots in explorer missions need to charge their batteries from time to time. Different policies for coordinated recharging in teams of robots are evaluated.
Mathematical expressions for bit error rates in a wireless system are derived and provide insight into interference control.
A time synchronization technique for networked devices with low-precision oscillators and low computational power is proposed and evaluated by experiments.
A newly published survey gives an overview of the characteristics and requirements of drone networks from the viewpoint of wireless communications and networking.
The airplane industry is interested in replacing heavy cables in aircraft by wireless connectivity. We are currently investigating the potential and feasibility of ultra-wideband (UWB) technology as an option for such systems.
Synchronization algorithms based on the theory of pulse-coupled oscillators are evaluated on programmable radios. It is experimentally demonstrated that the stochastic nature of coupling is a key ingredient for convergence to synchrony. We propose a distributed algorithm for automatic phase rate equalization and show that synchronization precisions below one microsecond are possible.
The convergence of binary majority consensus algorithms is studied in networks with different types of disturbances. It is shown how randomization can foster convergence.
New packages for the Robot Operating System (ROS) are available for autonomous exploration of unknown environments using collaborating mobile robots equipped with cameras. The software offers wireless ad hoc communications between robots, merging of maps from different robots, and coordinated selection of exploration frontiers. A prototype with four robots was built that demonstrates its functionality in an indoor environment.
Wireless networks are often modeled using tools from stochastic geometry. A team of researchers from Klagenfurt, Athens, and Notre Dame now contributed to these tools by solving general sum-product functionals for Poisson point processes. Link outage probabilities are derived for networks with interference and Nakagami fading.