H. Takai, G. Yasuda, and K. Tachibana (Japan)
mobile robots, multi-robot systems, infrared wireless communication, space-division wireless communication, ad hoc networks
Recently, mobile robot systems that enable team operations have been developed. Team member robots have to communicate among teammates in order to accomplish their complicated tasks. Usually, radio waves or infrared rays are used as a communication carrier. As radio waves emit omni-directional signals, signal interference often occurs if multiple robots use the same communication channel and transmit signals at the same time. On the other hand, since infrared rays have strong directivity and limited beam width, there is less signal interference. However, infrared communication systems often lose communication links when communicating robots move or rotate due to the directional nature of infrared rays. In this paper, we propose an infrared wireless communication system for mobile robot teams that decrease communication interference and maintain communication links by tracking the direction of the communicating partner. As a result of experiments, the developed communications system had a transmission speed of 460kbps in 1m distances. The communication system also had an angle detection accuracy of 0.5 degrees and an angle detection time of 100 m seconds.
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