Deployment of wireless mesh network using RSSI-based swarm robots

This paper proposes a novel method for deploying a wireless mesh network (WMN) using a group of swarm robots equipped with wireless transceivers. The proposed method uses the rough relative positions of the robots estimated by their Radio Signal Strength Indicators (RSSIs) to deploy the WMN. The employed algorithm consists of three parts, namely, (1) a fully distributed and dynamic role decision method among the robots, (2) an adaptive direction control using the time difference of the RSSIs, and (3) a narrow corridor for the robots to pass by movement function along walls. In our study, we evaluated the performances of the proposed deployment method and a conventional method in a real environment using 12 real robots for simple deployment, and 10 real robots for passing the narrow corridor. The results of the performed experiments showed that (1) the proposed method outperformed the conventional method with regard to the deployment time, power consumption, and the distances traveled by the robots, and (2) the movement function along the walls is effective while passing a narrow corridor unlike any other function.