Pilot Communication Protocols for Group of Mobile Robots in USAR Scenarios

This paper describes process of development of communication protocol for group of mobile robots in Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) operations based on wireless technology and Robot Operating System framework. During this work cases of mobile robot’s usage in USAR as well as modern worldwide researches in this area were studied and it was found out that one of the main issues with mobile robot usage in such situation is communication problem. Disasters typically destroy communication infrastructure and rescuers forced to use workarounds to be able to still use robots. Based on these studies goal for the paper has been set – to develop communication protocol that allows robots to communicate and exchange data with minimal human interference. To achieve this goal multiple types of communication technologies were analyzed and Bluetooth was chosen based on qualities most suited for this task. After that list of commands needed for USAR was combined and three of them (Follow, Stop, MoveAround) were chosen to be implemented during this research. Testing environment was created in simulator Gazebo with three TurtleBot robots to verify execution of developed command. Finally, commands and command handler were implemented and tested on robots in created testing environment by using trial scenarios.