Fault-tolerant control for multi-robot networks with redundant communication modules

Abstract This paper proposes an approach that can potentially enhance the reliability and fault tolerance of multi-robot systems. It involves equipping each robot with two kinds of wireless communication modules, including an image sensor-based optical channel, and proposing a control mechanism to maintain network connectivity across the entire network in the event of module failure. The optical channel is motivated by its capability to simultaneously receive multiple signals, which enhances scalability compared to conventional radio communication. By dynamically adjusting the network topology, fault prevention is achieved, combining distributed control strategies and graph theory. A distributed control method using an artificial potential method has been proposed, and numerical simulations have confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed method.