Using Mobile Agents to Reduce Network Load and to Support Disconnected Operations

Abstract

A mobile agent has gained popularity in many Internet and other applications. The benefits that we observed from applying to an autonomous mobile robot are twofold: to reduce network traffic and to support disconnected operations. However, it is not always guaranteed to reduce network load in all situations. In this paper, we propose a mathematical network load model to discuss in which situations a system can benefit from using a mobile agent and in which situations remote procedural call is better. Moreover, the capability of supporting disconnected operations is useful for applications in a fragile network environment. With such advantages, we designed an architecture, called VOMAS, to control a mobile robot. From the experiments, the mobile robot can benefit from the capabilities of network load reduction and disconnected operations.