Application Layer Protocol for a Heterogeneous Group of Mobile Robots in Search and Rescue Scenarios

Search and rescue (SaR) robotics is a fast-growing domain of academic research and field applications. Robots are widely used in various tasks before, during and after a disaster outbreak. SaR missions require fast hardware deployment, should rely on robust systems and tend employing groups of collaborating robots, which increase overall system performance and reliability. Heterogeneous robotic group connectivity demands a unified way of communication, which could be used by robots with different hardware and software. Such communication protocol should be open source and flexible enough to be applicable in international SaR missions. In this paper, we present a new protocol for heterogeneous robots’ interaction within a SaR mission. The proposed application layer protocol is based on well-tested modern technologies and implements the above-listed features that make it applicable in practice. The protocol is extendable, flexible and outperforms previously developed SaR robotics interaction protocols since it considers advantages, disadvantages and implementation difficulties that had been faced by the previously suggested protocols. The protocol was experimentally validated in a joint mapping task within a laboratory environment.