Designs and Prototypes of Mobile Robots
As network technologies have developed, networked control became a main research focus in mobile robots, as well as in many other applications. In this chapter, the advantages and the applications of networked control mobile robots are summarized. Furthermore, the chapter presents the main problems and achievements facilitated by the interplay between networked control, communication and perception. Control over the networks has to deal with drawbacks brought by network communication, such as delays and data loss. The mobility of individual robots brings new challenges to communication and perception. Further study is still needed in the coverage and localization problems of mobile sensor networks. A brief review of our Novel Robotics System for Planetary Exploration (NOROS) and some related works, such as the study of group behaviors, optimal routing design and wireless sensor networks localization, are also presented.