Paper Info
Title
Cooperative stigmergic navigation in a heterogeneous robotic swarm
Abstract
We study self-organized cooperation in a heterogeneous robotic swarm consisting of two sub-swarms. The robots of each sub-swarm play distinct roles based on their different characteristics. We investigate how the swarm as a whole can solve complex tasks through a self-organized process based on local interactions between the sub-swarms. We focus on an indoor navigation task, in which we use a swarm of wheeled robots, called foot-bots, and a swarm of flying robots that can attach to the ceiling, called eye-bots. Foot-bots have to move back and forth between a source and a target location. Eye-bots are deployed in stationary positions against the ceiling, with the goal of guiding foot-bots. We study how the combined system can find efficient paths through a cluttered environment in a distributed way. The key component of our approach is a process of mutual adaptation, in which foot-bots execute instructions given by eye-bots, and eye-bots observe the behavior of foot-bots to adapt the instructions they give. The system is based on pheromone mediated navigation of ant colonies, as eye-bots function as stigmergic markers for foot-bots. Through simulation, we show that the system finds feasible paths in cluttered environments, converges onto the shortest of two paths, and spreads over different paths in case of congestion.
Year
DOI
Venue
2010
10.1007/978-3-642-15193-4_57
SAB
Keywords
Field
DocType
combined system,eye-bots function,indoor navigation task,different characteristic,cooperative stigmergic navigation,self-organized cooperation,different path,heterogeneous robotic swarm,cluttered environment,pheromone mediated navigation,guiding foot-bots,ant colony,self organization
Sensor node,Obstacle avoidance,Swarm behaviour,Computer science,Ant robotics,Artificial intelligence,Robot,Ant colony,Mobile robot,Swarm robotics
Conference
Volume
ISSN
ISBN
6226
0302-9743
3-642-15192-2
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
4
0.47
9
Authors
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Frederick Ducatelle181340.43
Gianni A. Di Caro272151.79
Luca Maria Gambardella37926726.40