Reconnaissance into distant spaces by multi-robot rescue system with ad hoc networking

The system procedure of a victim detection system (VDS) is investigated to reconnoiter distance spaces. VDS is a previously proposed multi-robot rescue system, which searches for victims in urban disaster areas, that consists of mobile robots and one monitor station with operators. An ad hoc wireless network, which connects all of them, is continuously maintained by autonomous path recovery (APR) executed by each robot. The proposed VDS procedure adopts autonomous classification of robots into search and relay robots that act based on the behavior algorithms of each class of robot to configure chain networks threading a path to the spaces. The rules of classification and the behavior algorithm refer to the forwarding tables of each robot constructed for ad hoc networking. Simulation results show that VDS can reconnoiter distant spaces autonomously even though two or three spaces exist beyond different corridors stemming from the safety zone where the monitor station is established.