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Morphogenetic Engineering pp 239–271Cite as

Emergent Swarm Morphology Control of Wireless Networked Mobile Robots

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Part of the book series: Understanding Complex Systems ((UCS))

Abstract

We describe a new class of decentralised control algorithms that link local wireless connectivity to low-level robot motion control in order to maintain both swarm aggregation and connectivity, which we term “coherence”, in unbounded space. We investigate the potential of first-order and second-order connectivity information to maintain swarm coherence. For the second-order algorithm we show that a single \(\beta \) parameter—the number of shared neighbours that each robot tries to maintain—acts as an “adhesion” parameter. Control of \(\beta \) alone affects the global area coverage of the swarm. We then add a simple beacon sensor to each robot and show that, by creating a \(\beta \) differential between illuminated and occluded robots, the swarm displays emergent global taxis towards the beacon; it also displays interesting global obstacle avoidance properties. The chapter then extends the idea of \(\beta \) heterogeneity within the swarm to demonstrate variants of the algorithm that exhibit emergent concentric or linear segregation of subgroups within the swarm, or—in the presence of an external beacon—the formation of horizontal or vertical axial configurations. This emergent swarm morphology control is remarkable because apparently simple variations generate very different global properties. These emergent properties are interesting both because they appear to have parallels in biology, and because they could have value to a wide range of future applications in swarm robotics.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported in part by Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) Collaborative Research (CollR) funding.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bristol Robotics Laboratory (BRL), University of the West of England, Bristol, UK

    Alan F. T. Winfield

  2. Media and Design Laboratory, EPFL, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Julien Nembrini

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  1. Alan F. T. Winfield
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  2. Julien Nembrini
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alan F. T. Winfield .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut des Systèmes Complexes, Paris Ile-de-France, Ecole Polytechnique, rue Lhomond 57-59, Paris, 75005, France

    René Doursat

  2. Binghamton University, Dept. Bioengineering, State University of New York, Binghamton, 13902-6000, New York, USA

    Hiroki Sayama

  3. Faculté des Sciences et Technologie, Lab. LACL-EA 4219, Université Paris-Est Créteil, avenue due Général de Gaulle 61, Créteil Cedex, 94010, France

    Olivier Michel

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Winfield, A.F., Nembrini, J. (2012). Emergent Swarm Morphology Control of Wireless Networked Mobile Robots. In: Doursat, R., Sayama, H., Michel, O. (eds) Morphogenetic Engineering. Understanding Complex Systems. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33902-8_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33902-8_10

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-33901-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-33902-8

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