A distributed coordination and control protocol may enable a set of mobile, self-organizing, robotic relay nodes to adaptively seek positions in such an environment that establishes a network, meeting desired coverage in terms of connected warfighters. Distributed coordination of robotic relay nodes may allow the network to dynamically adapt as positions of warfighters change and/or the network demands change. An algorithm is provided that may be scalable to a large number of robots and may be robust to random deployment of robots, robot platform failures, channel dynamics, and changing warfighter positions.