Cooperative Semi-autonomous Robotic Network for Search and Rescue Operations

The results presented in this paper prove the viability of developing a robotic network for search and rescue operations. With the capability of peer-to-peer communication, such robots form an ad-hoc network called Cooperative Mobile Network CMN. All robots in the CMN are semi-autonomous in that each operates in three modes: 1 fully controlled by a human commander; 2 controlled by a human commander for critical operations only; and 3 fully relying on its own intelligence to make decisions for cooperative operations. Due to the constraints of weight and processing power, diverse CMN operations utilize multiple robots with complementing functionalities. This work was performed at the Structures Propulsion And Control Engineering SPACE NASA sponsored University Research Center URC of excellence at the California State University, Los Angeles.