# ACHORD: Communication-Aware Multi-Robot Coordination with Intermittent Connectivity

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2206.02245 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.02245/

## Key facts

- Cited by 6 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 5 Jun 2022.

## Built on by (most cited first, 6 of 6)

- [Air-Ground Collaboration for Language-Specified Missions in Unknown Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.09108/) (2025)
- [UAVs Beneath the Surface: Cooperative Autonomy for Subterranean Search and Rescue in DARPA SubT](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.08185/) (2022)
- [Bayesian Optimization Framework for Efficient Fleet Design in Autonomous Multi-Robot Exploration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.11751/) (2024)
- [Communication-Aware Consistent Edge Selection for Mobile Users and Autonomous Vehicles](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.03435/) (2024)
- [When Simultaneous Localization and Mapping Meets Wireless Communications: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.06995/) (2026)
- [Attention-based Hierarchical Variational Information Bottleneck for Robust Multi-Agent Communication under Variable Bandwidth](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.34860/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Communication is an important capability for multi-robot exploration because (1) inter-robot communication (comms) improves coverage efficiency and (2) robot-to-base comms improves situational awareness. Exploring comms-restricted (e.g., subterranean) environments requires a multi-robot system to tolerate and anticipate intermittent connectivity, and to carefully consider comms requirements, otherwise mission-critical data may be lost. In this paper, we describe and analyze ACHORD (Autonomous & Collaborative High-Bandwidth Operations with Radio Droppables), a multi-layer networking solution which tightly co-designs the network architecture and high-level decision-making for improved comms. ACHORD provides bandwidth prioritization and timely and reliable data transfer despite intermittent connectivity. Furthermore, it exposes low-layer networking metrics to the application layer to enable robots to autonomously monitor, map, and extend the network via droppable radios, as well as restore connectivity to improve collaborative exploration. We evaluate our solution with respect to the comms performance in several challenging underground environments including the DARPA SubT Finals competition environment. Our findings support the use of data stratification and flow control to improve bandwidth-usage.