Docking station relocation for maximizing longevity of distributed robotic teams

Distributed robotic teams have long been touted as potential means to avoid sending humans into harmful situations. The ability of robotic teams to operate for extended periods without the fatigue human teams can experience, coupled with the ability to transport a variety of sensing and manipulation equipment and reducing costs of operation make them an attractive solution. Limited sensing capabilities, power, and mobility of individual robotic platforms can be overcome by forming teams of heterogeneous robots. This work addresses the power limitations associated with individual robots, which have finite amounts of power, and thus limited operational lifetimes. This work presents a method by which mobile docking stations can optimize their locations in order to maximize the power available to the deployed robots. Simulated results are presented in which teams of docking stations continuously recover and recharge a much larger team of deployed robots. It is assumed that the deployed robots are able to maintain a communication link between themselves and the docking station. This communication link is used to provide position information and available power to the docking stations. The communication link may be direct from the robot to docking station or it may require the use of ad hoc routing through other deployed robots.