Swarm Communication via MANETs
The project gets its inspiration from the biological swarms of bees, fish and other animals who move or span an area by simple coordination among them, without an explicit instruction or commands to do so. In the last decade, multi-agent or swarm robotic systems have seen significant applications in
2025-06-28 16:36:13 - Adil Khan
Swarm Communication via MANETs
Project Area of Specialization Information & Communication TechnologyProject SummaryThe project gets its inspiration from the biological swarms of bees, fish and other animals who move or span an area by simple coordination among them, without an explicit instruction or commands to do so. In the last decade, multi-agent or swarm robotic systems have seen significant applications in various fields of engineering. In robotics, researchers have formulated multi-agent strategies for platforms such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) and Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs). Using such multi-robot platforms, efficiency of conducting search missions in large search spaces can be enhanced.
Swarm robotics is important because in any emergency situation, robots will be able to work more efficiently as compared to humans. For disaster hit areas, efficiency of rescue and relief operations is very important because precious human lives are on the line. In real-world applications, centralized communication infrastructures have a single point of failure and are riled with communication delays and bandwidth issues, especially in harsh environments. A decentralized or event better, a distributed communications infrastructure is more robust and offers multi-point to multi-point communication without considerable delays. These traits are necessary in establishing a well-coordinated multi-agent system. Also, we will be developing a self-healing and self-forming decentralized communication network. One use case of this project is disaster management and we are working on this project in that regard. In disaster scenario, not only the multi-agent robotic systems can reliably approximate the extent of damage but can also help in establishing communication between the survivors and the emergency rescue-service providers.
Project ObjectivesWe aim to achieve the following objectives through this project:
- We will implement the multi-agent robotic system that can reliably approximate the extent of damage but can also help in establishing communication between the survivors and the emergency rescue-service providers and proved helpful for providing coverage as well as coordination in complex geographical environments because these robots communicate with each other and monitor sensitive areas based on the cumulative decision of robots.
- We will demonstrate an efficient rescue and relief operation management system in which the robots will communicate with each other and monitor the disaster hit area. The robots will report back to the ground control station(GCS) where GCS will identify sensitive areas in the monitored area. If the need arises the GCS may ask certain robots to navigate to that particular area.
- We aim to enhance our skills set in embedded systems, Microhard pMDDL2450 modems, web application development languages like HTML, CSS, SQL and JavaScript for better job placements.
After thorough literature survey of the project we have identified the following implementation approach:
- We will connect A PC to the LAN port (eth0) of the pMDDL, using an ethernet cable. A browser window will be opened and IP address of the modem will be inserted into the address bar. After successful login, GUI of the modem will be displayed. We can configure the modems based on our requirements. Point to point, point to multipoint and mesh configurations of modems can be chosen for the purpose of communication. After the configurations of modems in the desired topology, two-way full duplex communication will be done between the modems. The modems will successfully communicate with each other and will exchange information.
- After the successful implementation of the communication part of swarm, modems will be interfaced with DJI M210 platforms and will be mounted on them. DJI M210 platforms will monitor the operation area and it will capture the images of that area.
- We will do parsing and packetization of data. All the captured data will be converted into data packets and sent to the ground control station such as gps coordinates, battery levels and camera images using modems. Ground control station will parse the data sent from the modems and will display it on the web application’s GUI.
- A web application will be developed for both client and server side. At the client side, all the data from the server will be displayed and a map showing the current location of the nodes will also be displayed. Server will provide the desired data to the client. For client side, we will use HTML, CSS and JavaScript and for server side, node.js, SQL database and express.js framework will be used.
- To broaden the scope of our project, we will interface Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) with MATLAB to decode and demodulate the received signals from modems and will verify that the received signal’s properties are same as that of the data sent from the modems.
This project will give the following benefits in solving the real world problems:
- This project is of great importance in our daily life and solves a real world problem that we face quite often. For example, in case of a disaster like an earthquake or floods etc. due to which the communication infrastructure gets broken down and access to the destruction area gets limited. Both these factors negatively impact the efficiency of rescue and relief operations that needs to be most efficient during this time of an emergency.
- The advantage of using swarm robots is that they are simple and cheap as compared to an individual powerful robot and cover more geographical area. Moreover, damage to any single robot does not affect the overall operation of the swarm which is huge plus point. First, single robot may still not be intelligent enough to fulfill some tasks, especially in complicated geographical environments where multiple obstacles exist on the path of the robots. Another advantage is that due to their small size, these robots can travel to any disaster hit area and provide coverage.
At the completion of our project, we will provide the following deliverables:
- A swarm of at least 3 nodes (possibly UAVs) that are able to communicate with each other through Microhard pMDDL2450. Microhard modems are interfaced with either DJI M210 or Laptop PC.
- Swarm nodes will periodically convey their GPS coordinates, camera images and battery levels to the ground control station (GCS). If need arises, GCS may ask any node to navigate to certain coordinates, start sending live video feed, zoom in/out the camera in a certain direction.
- GUI showing the GPS coordinates, battery level and images of different nodes will be developed. It will also include the on demand commands like camera zoom in/out, go to certain coordinates and tilt at some angle.
- Signal Intelligence using USRP includes understanding of network functionality as well as understanding of burst structure. It consists of demodulating the received signal and extracting the information out of it.
| Item Name | Type | No. of Units | Per Unit Cost (in Rs) | Total (in Rs) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total in (Rs) | 53907 | |||
| SMA Connectors | Equipment | 4 | 250 | 1000 |
| RF cables | Equipment | 4 | 250 | 1000 |
| batteries | Equipment | 6 | 3300 | 19800 |
| IP Cameras | Equipment | 3 | 5000 | 15000 |
| LIPO chargers | Equipment | 2 | 1100 | 2200 |
| GPS dongles | Equipment | 3 | 4969 | 14907 |