Hybrid free-space optics/radio frequency (FSO/RF) networks for mobile robot teams

In this paper, we introduce a hybrid free-space optics/radio frequency (FSO/RF) networking paradigm for mobile robot teams. We believe that such a model will emerge as a consequence of inherent limitations of RF based approaches. FSO technology has the potential to provide tremendous increases in per-node throughput for a mobile ad-hoc network (MANET). To motivate this paradigm, we first provide a brief background on FSO and discuss potential applications where its capabilities could be well leveraged. We then provide initial experimental results from autonomous deployments of a hybrid FSO/RF MANET with real-time video data routed across both optical and RF links.