The challenge
The foundation of the UK’s future defence strategy is all about getting ahead through Information Advantage (IA).
It’s about being smarter than our adversaries by quickly getting important information in fast changing military situations. But there are some big challenges we face:
- In terms of mobility, our equipment, whether it’s a single vehicle or a whole group of soldiers, needs to be adaptable without needing experts or constant internet support.
- When we communicate using radio waves, it gets complicated because we’re sharing the airwaves with allies, civilians, and adversaries.
We often need more information than our communication systems can handle, so we must find ways for everyone to share what they know. - We frequently work with other countries and organisations, so we need to share information easily even if we’re using different systems.
- While communication helps us get an edge, it also exposes vulnerabilities to adversaries who might attempt to listen in or disrupt our signals in different ways.
To tackle these challenges, we need a strong communication network that can handle the tough battlefield conditions.
Our solution
Our solution was to develop robot-like devices called autonomous mesh nodes. These nodes would move around by themselves and adjust their positions based on how strong the network signal is. This would make any network they’re part of much stronger, reducing the chances of losing communication.
We’ve been developing this concept by simulating it and then trying it out with real nodes moved by people and robots. Our solution creates a significant operational benefit, as it ensures uninterrupted communications between units deployed in active and complex battlefield scenarios.
The Results
We validated the potential of deploying an autonomous swarm of robots to achieve highly robust communication networks. We tested our findings in simulations and then we successfully deployed our algorithms on real robots. We also demonstrated a scenario with failing nodes, illustrating the self-healing features of the network, resulting in superior metrics vs a static deployment.
