{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,14]],"date-time":"2026-07-14T14:46:11Z","timestamp":1784040371854,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":27,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,1,28]],"date-time":"2020-01-28T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1580169600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>This work addresses the problem of information distribution in multi-robot systems, with an emphasis on multi-UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) applications. We present an analytical model that helps evaluate and compare different information distribution schemes in a robotic mission. It serves as a unified framework to represent the usefulness (utility) of each message exchanged by the robots. It can be used either on its own in order to assess the information distribution efficacy or as a building block of solutions aimed at optimizing information distribution. Moreover, we present multiple examples of instantiating the model for specific missions. They illustrate various approaches to defining the utility of different information types. Finally, we introduce a proof of concept showing the applicability of the model in a robotic system by implementing it in Robot Operating System 2 (ROS 2) and performing a simple simulated mission using a network emulator. We believe the introduced model can serve as a basis for further research on generic solutions for assessing or optimizing information distribution.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s20030710","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,1,28]],"date-time":"2020-01-28T09:37:09Z","timestamp":1580204229000},"page":"710","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":13,"title":["Information Distribution in Multi-Robot Systems: Utility-Based Evaluation Model"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"20","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6776-2913","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Micha\u0142","family":"Barci\u015b","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Karl Popper Kolleg on Networked Autonomous Aerial Vehicles (KPK NAV), University of Klagenfurt, 9020 Klagenfurt, Austria"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1444-6719","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Agata","family":"Barci\u015b","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Karl Popper Kolleg on Networked Autonomous Aerial Vehicles (KPK NAV), University of Klagenfurt, 9020 Klagenfurt, Austria"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1114-2584","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Hermann","family":"Hellwagner","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Karl Popper Kolleg on Networked Autonomous Aerial Vehicles (KPK NAV), University of Klagenfurt, 9020 Klagenfurt, Austria"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,1,28]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"Barci\u015b, M., and Hellwagner, H. (May, January 29). An Evaluation Model for Information Distribution in Multi-Robot Systems. Proceedings of the IEEE INFOCOM WKSHPS: MiSARN: Mission-Oriented Wireless Sensor, UAV and Robot Networking, Paris, France."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Gadd, M., and Newman, P. (2016, January 9\u201314). Checkout My Map: Version Control for Fleetwide Visual Localisation. Proceedings of the IEEE\/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Daejeon, Korea.","DOI":"10.1109\/IROS.2016.7759843"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Cieslewski, T., Choudhary, S., and Scaramuzza, D. (2018, January 21\u201325). Data-Efficient Decentralized Visual SLAM. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICRA.2018.8461155"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Mahdoui, N., Fremont, V., and Natalizio, E. (2017, January 16\u201318). Cooperative Exploration Strategy for Micro-Aerial Vehicles Fleet. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Multisensor Fusion and Integration for Intelligent Systems, Daegu, Korea.","DOI":"10.1109\/MFI.2017.8170426"},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Marcotte, R.J., Wang, X., Mehta, D., and Olson, E. (2019). Optimizing Multi-Robot Communication under Bandwidth Constraints. Auton. Robot., 1\u201313.","DOI":"10.1007\/s10514-019-09849-0"},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Best, G., Forrai, M., Mettu, R., and Fitch, R. (2018, January 21\u201325). Planning-Aware Communication for Decentralised Multi-Robot Coordination. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICRA.2018.8460617"},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Krinkin, K., Filatov, A., Filatov, A., Kurishev, O., and Lyanguzov, A. (2018, January 15\u201318). Data Distribution Services Performance Evaluation Framework. Proceedings of the Conference of Open Innovations Association FRUCT, Jyvaskyla, Finland.","DOI":"10.23919\/FRUCT.2018.8468297"},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"73","DOI":"10.1016\/j.robot.2018.10.009","article-title":"Pound: A Multi-Master ROS Node for Reducing Delay and Jitter in Wireless Multi-Robot Networks","volume":"111","author":"Tardioli","year":"2019","journal-title":"Robot. Auton. Syst."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"95","DOI":"10.1016\/j.robot.2017.11.002","article-title":"Quantitative Analysis of Security in Distributed Robotic Frameworks","volume":"100","author":"Soriano","year":"2018","journal-title":"Robot. Auton. Syst."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Maruyama, Y., Kato, S., and Azumi, T. (2016, January 1\u20137). Exploring the Performance of ROS2. Proceedings of the International Conference on Embedded Software, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.","DOI":"10.1145\/2968478.2968502"},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"318","DOI":"10.1016\/j.future.2009.09.001","article-title":"Real-Time Performance Analysis for Publish\/Subscribe Systems","volume":"26","author":"Oh","year":"2010","journal-title":"Future Gener. Comput. Syst."},{"key":"ref_12","unstructured":"Tornell, S., Hernandez-Orallo, E., Calafate, C., Cano, J.C., Manzoni, P., and Hern\u00e1ndez, E. (2013, January 4\u20137). An Analytical Evaluation of a Map-Based Sensor-Data Delivery Protocol for VANETs. Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on a World of Wireless, Mobile and Multimedia Networks, Madrid, Spain."},{"key":"ref_13","unstructured":"OPTICOM GmbH (2005). PEVQ Advanced Perceptual Evaluation of Video Quality, OPTICOM GmbH. Technical Report."},{"key":"ref_14","first-page":"432","article-title":"Online Resource Inference in Network Utility Maximization Problems","volume":"6","author":"Frossard","year":"2018","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Netw. Sci. Eng."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kimura, T., Matsuura, T., Sasabe, M., Matsuda, T., and Takine, T. (2015, January 12\u201314). Location-Aware Utility-Based Routing for Store-Carry-Forward Message Delivery. Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Networking, Siem Reap, Cambodia.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICOIN.2015.7057881"},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"105","DOI":"10.1057\/palgrave.jors.2602303","article-title":"Single Machine Scheduling with Time Deteriorating Job Values","volume":"59","author":"Raut","year":"2008","journal-title":"J. Oper. Res. Soc."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"454","DOI":"10.1109\/TC.2006.47","article-title":"A Utility Accrual Scheduling Algorithm for Real-Time Activities with Mutual Exclusion Resource Constraints","volume":"55","author":"Li","year":"2006","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Comput."},{"key":"ref_18","unstructured":"Huang, D.S., Jo, K.H., Zhou, Y.Q., and Han, K. (2013). An Emergency Vehicle Scheduling Problem with Time Utility Based on Particle Swarm Optimization. Intelligent Computing Theories and Technology; Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Mu, M., Mauthe, A., and Garcia, F. (2008, January 16\u201319). A Utility-Based QoS Model for Emerging Multimedia Applications. Proceedings of the International Conference on Next Generation Mobile Applications, Services, and Technologies, Cardiff, UK.","DOI":"10.1109\/NGMAST.2008.24"},{"key":"ref_20","unstructured":"Xia, Y., So, H.S.W., La, R.H.J., Anantharam, V., McCanne, S., Tse, D., Walrand, J., and Varaiya, P. (2000). The Framework of User-Centric Optimization in Web-Based Applications, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science University of California. Technical Report."},{"key":"ref_21","unstructured":"Yeung, R.W. (2008). Information Theory and Network Coding, Springer."},{"key":"ref_22","unstructured":"Williamson, S.A., Gerding, E., and Jennings, N.R. (2008, January 12\u201316). A Principled Information Valuation for Communications during Multi-Agent Coordination. Proceedings of the AAMAS Workshop on Multi-Agent Sequential Decision Making in Uncertain Domains, Estoril, Portugal."},{"key":"ref_23","unstructured":"Williamson, S.A., Gerding, E.H., and Jennings, N.R. (2009, January 10\u201315). Reward Shaping for Valuing Communications during Multi-Agent Coordination. Proceedings of the Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems, Budapest, Hungary."},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2624","DOI":"10.1109\/COMST.2016.2560343","article-title":"Survey on Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Networks for Civil Applications: A Communications Viewpoint","volume":"18","author":"Hayat","year":"2016","journal-title":"IEEE Commun. Surv. Tutor."},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"129","DOI":"10.1109\/MCOM.2014.6815903","article-title":"Application-Driven Design of Aerial Communication Networks","volume":"52","author":"Andre","year":"2014","journal-title":"IEEE Commun. Mag."},{"key":"ref_26","unstructured":"Fechner, G.T. (1966). Elements of Psychophysics, Holt, Rinehart and Winston."},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Barci\u015b, A., Barci\u015b, M., and Bettstetter, C. (2019, January 22\u201323). Robots That Sync and Swarm: A Proof of Concept in ROS 2. Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Multi-Robot and Multi-Agent Systems, New Brunswick, NJ, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/MRS.2019.8901095"}],"container-title":["Sensors"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/20\/3\/710\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,13]],"date-time":"2025-10-13T13:44:46Z","timestamp":1760363086000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/20\/3\/710"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2020,1,28]]},"references-count":27,"journal-issue":{"issue":"3","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,2]]}},"alternative-id":["s20030710"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/s20030710","relation":{},"ISSN":["1424-8220"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1424-8220","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2020,1,28]]}}}