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Distributed scheduling of network connectivity using mobile access point robots

Publication ,  Journal Article
Chatzipanagiotis, N; Zavlanos, MM
Published in: IEEE Transactions on Robotics
December 1, 2016

In this paper, we consider scenarios where mobility can be exploited to enable reliable communications in wireless networks with scarce resources that are unable to concurrently service their nodes. Specifically, we consider cases where a team of robots operate as mobile access points (APs) that provide service, namely sufficient end-to-end communication routes, to a multihop network of static source nodes which generate data. We introduce the connectivity scheduling problem, a novel framework that combines motion planning of the APs with service scheduling of the source nodes and network routing control so that integrity of communications is guaranteed over time. We formulate the connectivity scheduling problem as a multistage mixed integer programming (MIP) problem, where path planning, service scheduling, and routing decisions are all jointly optimized over a discrete-time horizon. Since MIP problems can grow intractable quickly, we further consider a continuous convex reformulation of the problem and employ sparse optimization techniques, specifically the reweighted l1 regularization scheme, to recover the desired integrality structure of the solution. We propose a decentralized method to solve the above relaxation that is based on the recently developed accelerated distributed augmented Lagrangians (ADAL) algorithm. Specifically, we modify ADAL by incorporating in the algorithm the reweighted l1 scheme, which enables us to recover the desired sparsity structure of the original MIP at the final solution. Numerical results are presented that validate the effectiveness of the proposed framework.

Duke Scholars

Published In

IEEE Transactions on Robotics

DOI

ISSN

1552-3098

Publication Date

December 1, 2016

Volume

32

Issue

6

Start / End Page

1333 / 1346

Related Subject Headings

  • Industrial Engineering & Automation
  • 4007 Control engineering, mechatronics and robotics
  • 0913 Mechanical Engineering
  • 0906 Electrical and Electronic Engineering
  • 0801 Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing
 

Citation

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MLA
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Chatzipanagiotis, N., & Zavlanos, M. M. (2016). Distributed scheduling of network connectivity using mobile access point robots. IEEE Transactions on Robotics, 32(6), 1333–1346. https://doi.org/10.1109/TRO.2016.2593041
Chatzipanagiotis, N., and M. M. Zavlanos. “Distributed scheduling of network connectivity using mobile access point robots.” IEEE Transactions on Robotics 32, no. 6 (December 1, 2016): 1333–46. https://doi.org/10.1109/TRO.2016.2593041.
Chatzipanagiotis N, Zavlanos MM. Distributed scheduling of network connectivity using mobile access point robots. IEEE Transactions on Robotics. 2016 Dec 1;32(6):1333–46.
Chatzipanagiotis, N., and M. M. Zavlanos. “Distributed scheduling of network connectivity using mobile access point robots.” IEEE Transactions on Robotics, vol. 32, no. 6, Dec. 2016, pp. 1333–46. Scopus, doi:10.1109/TRO.2016.2593041.
Chatzipanagiotis N, Zavlanos MM. Distributed scheduling of network connectivity using mobile access point robots. IEEE Transactions on Robotics. 2016 Dec 1;32(6):1333–1346.

Published In

IEEE Transactions on Robotics

DOI

ISSN

1552-3098

Publication Date

December 1, 2016

Volume

32

Issue

6

Start / End Page

1333 / 1346

Related Subject Headings

  • Industrial Engineering & Automation
  • 4007 Control engineering, mechatronics and robotics
  • 0913 Mechanical Engineering
  • 0906 Electrical and Electronic Engineering
  • 0801 Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing