Interruptibility and its negative impact on graph exploration missions by a team of robots

Abstract

Exploring an unknown graph has several fields of applications such as search and rescue operations. A team of robots is used to speed up these exploration missions; provided that they synchronize and coordinate their activities. Here, several conditions may limit the communication capabilities of robots which are crucial for coordination (e.g. high temperature). Therefore, a periodic rendezvous is needed as a work around in order to overlap their communication ranges. Attending these periodic rendezvous sessions requires that robots interrupt their current exploration progress periodically and traverse back to the rendezvous points (i.e. Interruptibility). During their trips to these points, the robots cross the explored part of the graph. Thus, they do not gain new knowledge about the graph. Furthermore, it increases the required time of exploration. Evaluating the impact of these interruptions on the exploration process through several experiments under different exploration strategies is the scope of this paper. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.