Collaborative robots

UPenn, USC, and Georgia Tech have established a framework for deploying an adaptive system of heterogeneous robots for urban surveillance. The aerial robots generate maps that are used to design navigation controllers and plan missions for the team. Multiple robots establish a mobile, ad-hoc communication network which is aware of the radio-signal strength between nodes and can adapt to conditions to maintain connectivity. A team of aerial and ground robots is able to monitor a small village and search for and localize human targets by the color of uniforms, while ensuring that the information from the team is available to a remotely-located human operator.