Abstract
Communications and communication protocols play an important role in mobile robot systems able to address real world applications. Since the advent of high-performance wireless local area network (WLAN) and ad hoc networking technology at relatively low cost, their use for wireless communications among and control of mobile robots has become a practical proposition. However, in a large system with many mobile robots, it becomes difficult for all of robots to exchange information at a time because of their limited communication capacities. In this case, an ad hoc robot networking scheme is more promising. This paper presents the background of mobile ad hoc networks, ad hoc robot wireless communications, and their applications.