A preprint proposes a way for a human-driven lead robot to be followed by a chain of autonomous relay robots that keep line of sight to a fixed base, for places where radio links fail. Each robot computes its own control with a safety constraint that guarantees the chain stays connected, plus a softer inner constraint that nudges followers forward so the leader is not stalled.
The authors prove the local optimisation problems stay feasible and the connected, collision-free set stays safe. They tested it on a simple simulated robot model and on software-in-the-loop Crazyflie quadrotors in cluttered spaces, where it kept links closer to connected than a baseline tuned to reach the goal in similar time.
No hardware flights are reported, and the guarantee covers an idealised model rather than inner-loop tracking error, which the authors list as future work.
Limits
Simulation only (including software-in-the-loop quadrotors); guarantee assumes an idealised model; not peer reviewed.