Gray Transceiver: A Multi-Robot Communication Interface and Protocol

Abstract

The use of multi-robot teams in the Robot Operating System (ROS) has encountered difficulty in advancement because of a lack of effective ways for the robots to communicate. Several attempts towards solving this problem have been made, but these approaches have had trouble with either low fault tolerance or high network load. The Gray Transceiver is an interface and communication protocol for inter-robot communication using ROS. The Gray Transceiver leverages multicasting for reduced network load and increased fault tolerance. Results from simulations, high throughput testing, and live multi-robot evaluations are included. The live mult-robot and simulation evaluations show that it functions properly operating across multiple robots while tolerating faults. The high throughput test shows how the Gray Transceiver operates under high load across a several types of conditions.