Quantized Coordination Algorithms for Rendezvous and Deployment

Abstract

Abstract. In this paper we study motion coordination problems for groups of robots that exchange information through a rate-constrained communication network. For rendezvous and deployment problems, we propose an integrated control and communication scheme combining a logarithmic coder/decoder with linear coordination algorithms. We show that the closed-loop performance is comparable to the one achievable in the quantization-free model: the time complexity is unchanged and the exponential convergence factor degrades smoothly as the quantization accuracy becomes coarser. 1. Introduction. Problem description and motivation. This work focuses on robotic coordination problems among robots that communicate through reliable digital channels, i.e., robots connected by a data-rate constrained network. The problem is motivated by the rising importance of robotic network technologies and the scientific interest in