Robots unite to defeat electronic jamming.

• Author: Jean, Grace V.
• Position: INSIDESCIENCE+TECHNOLOGY

* Ground robots are becoming commonplace aids on battlefields and in disaster relief operations around the world. But their effectiveness is being hampered by the proliferation of wireless communication devices. Radio signals jam the robots, which are limited in range by low-power antennas and slow processors.

Troops and first responders in the future would like to send teams of autonomous vehicles out on long distance missions that will require improved communications. To help them, scientists are working on technologies that will allow multiple robots to collaborate and form virtual antenna arrays to overcome dead zones and dropped connections and to amplify the systems' range while consuming less power.

The concept involves combining two key communications capabilities: beamforming and robotic controls.

San Diego-based Adaptive Communications Research Inc. has developed beamforming software that eliminates or reduces interference and extends signal transmission ranges on devices with limited hardware processors. It is based on an algorithm called non-Eigen decomposition. The beamforming software is well suited for robotic systems, said the company's president, Garret Okamoto.

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Funded by a National Science Foundation grant, ACRi is placing its beamforming technology aboard small four-wheeled vehicles with control systems developed by Santa Clara University's robotic systems laboratory. The robots maneuver collaboratively as a group into formations of various geometrical shapes including circles, squares and triangles, said the lab's director Christopher Kitts.

"We have a very specific control technique that we've developed that lets you very easily, flexibly reconfigure formations of robots," he said. This "cluster space" approach allows operators to input the intended formation or shape of the group. The control software then calculates each robot's corresponding movements and sends the vehicle into formation. Eventually, the intent is to take the operator out of the equation and enable the robots to adjust their positions autonomously.

Equipped with ACRi's beamforming technology, the robots essentially form smart antenna arrays. When they move into different formations, they alter the array's aperture, which changes the frequency being transmitted or received.

"Basically, there are numerous antennas spread over an area and they are collaboratively communicating. This could be useful in a public safety or disaster...