Robotic Wireless Networks in a Narrow Alley: A Game Theoretic Approach

TL;DR

This paper explores how wireless communication among autonomous vehicles in a narrow alley can facilitate near-optimal coordination to avoid blocking, using a game-theoretic model and a real-world robot test-bed.

Contribution

It introduces a game-theoretic approach to vehicular coordination in narrow alleys and demonstrates its effectiveness through a practical ZigBee-enabled robot test-bed.

Findings

Wireless communication improves vehicle coordination efficiency.

Game theory helps approach Pareto optimal solutions.

Test-bed validates the proposed approach in real-world scenarios.

Abstract

There are many situations where vehicles may compete with each other to maximize their respective utilities.We consider a narrow alley where two groups, eastbound and westbound, of autonomous vehicles are heading toward each of their destination to minimize their travel distance. However, if the two groups approach the road simultaneously, it will be blocked. The main goal of this paper is to investigate how wireless communications among the vehicles can lead the solution near to Pareto optimum. In addition, we implemented such a vehicular test-bed, composed of networked robots that have an infrared sensor, a DC motor, and a wireless communication module: ZigBee (IEEE 802.15.4).