Abstract
We consider here the use of heterogeneous UAV swarms to defend a high-value target. We gain inspiration from the guarding system used by colonies of Tetragonisca angustula bees, which uses both high-cost hovering guards and low-cost standing guards to protect within-nest resources from theft by their own and other species (con- and heterospecific invaders, respectively). Hovering guards discern heterospecifics from conspecifics, and standing guards discern conspecific invaders from nestmates. Using a value-based multi-agent simulation, we find that, when heterospecific invaders deduct much more value from the defended resources than conspecifics, a heterogeneous defense force preserves value most effectively. Consequently, when facing heterogeneous invaders, focus should be on building effective mixtures of heterogeneous defensive agents instead of enhancing capabilities of homogeneous robotic swarms. Our results also contribute to better understanding T. angustula’s guarding system.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Baudier, K.M., Ostwald, M.M., Pavlic, T.P., Pratt, S.C., Fewell, J.H.: Guard specialization in group defensive tactics of the stingless bee Tetragonisca angustula (2018). in preparation
Bowden, R.M., Garry, M.F., Breed, M.D.: Discrimination of con- and heterospecific bees by Trigona (Tetragonisca) angustula guards. J. Kansas Entomol. Soc. 67(1), 137–139 (1994)
DeMarco, K., Squires, E.: SCRIMMAGE (Simulating Collaborative Robots In Massive Multi-Agent Game Execution), Aug 2017. https://www.scrimmagesim.org/
DeMarco, K., Squires, E., Day, M., Pippin, C.: Simulating collaborative robots in a massive multi-agent game environment (SCRIMMAGE). In: International Symposium on Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems (2018)
Deutsch, H., Mabert, V.A.: Queueing theory and teller staffing; a successful application. Interfaces 10(5), 63–67 (1980)
Duell, M.E., Roubik, D.W., Harrison, J.F.: Metabolic rate measurements of Tetragonisca angustula stingless bees, Jun 2017. Unpublished raw data
Earl, M.G., D’Andrea, R.: Modeling and control of a multi-agent system using mixed integer linear programming. In: Proceedings of the 41st IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, 2002, vol. 1, pp. 107–111. IEEE, Dec 2002
Earl, M.G., D’Andrea, R.: A study in cooperative control: the RoboFlag drill. In: Proceedings of the 2002 American Control Conference (IEEE Cat. No.CH37301), vol. 3, pp. 1811–1812. IEEE (May 2002)
Emery, R., Sikorski, K., Balch, T.: Protocols for collaboration, coordination and dynamic role assignment in a robot team. In: Proceedings of the 2002 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.02CH37292), vol. 3, pp. 3008–3015 (2002)
Grüter, C., Kärcher, M.H., Ratnieks, F.L.W.: The natural history of nest defence in a stingless bee, Tetragonisca angustula (Latreille) (Hymenoptera: Apidae), with two distinct types of entrance guards. Neotropical Entomol. 40(1), 55–61 (2011)
Grüter, C., Menezes, C., Imperatriz-Fonseca, V.L., Ratnieks, F.L.W.: A morphologically specialized soldier caste improves colony defense in a neotropical eusocial bee. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 109(4), 1182–1186 (2012)
Jernigan, C.M., Birgiolas, J., McHugh, C., Roubik, D.W., Wcislo, W.T., Smith, B.H.: Colony-level non-associative plasticity of alarm responses in the stingless honey bee Tetragonisca angustula. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 72(3), 58 (2018)
Jones, S.M., van Zweden, J.S., Grüter, C., Menezes, C., Alves, D.A., Nunes-Silva, P., Czaczkes, T., Imperatriz-Fonseca, V.L., Ratnieks, F.L.W.: The role of wax and resin in the nestmate recognition system of a stingless bee Tetragonisca angustula. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 66(1), 1–12 (2012)
Kürcher, M.H., Ratnieks, F.L.W.: Standing and hovering guards of the stingless bee Tetragonisca angustula complement each other in entrance guarding and intruder recognition. J. Apic. Res. 48(3), 209–214 (2009)
Mabert, V.A.: A case study of encoder shift scheduling under uncertainty. Manag. Sci. 25(7), 623–631 (1979)
Martinson, E., Arkin, R.C.: Learning to role-switch in multi-robot systems. In: 2003 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.03CH37422), vol. 2, pp. 2727–2734, Taipei, Taiwan, Sep 2003
Michener, C.D.: Notes on the habits of some Panamanian stingless bees (Hymenoptera, Apidæ). J. N. Y. Entomol. Soc. 54(3), 179–197 (1946). http://www.jstor.org/stable/25005167
Wittmann, D.: Aerial defense of the nest by workers of the stingless bee Trigona (Tetragonisca) angustula (Latreille) (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 16(2), 111–114 (1985)
van Zweden, J.S., Grüter, C., Jones, S.M., Ratnieks, F.L.: Hovering guards of the stingless bee Tetragonisca angustula increase colony defensive perimeter as shown by intra-and inter-specific comparisons. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 65(6), 1277–1282 (2011)
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by DARPA under the Bio-Inspired Swarming seedling project, contract FA8651-17-F-1013.
The authors would like to thank Dr. Jon Harrison of Arizona State University (ASU) for his assistance in estimating T. angustula metabolic rates, and him, Meghan Duell (ASU), and Dr. David Roubik of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute for the raw data [6] used to make those estimations.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Strickland, L., Baudier, K., Bowers, K., Pavlic, T.P., Pippin, C. (2019). Bio-inspired Role Allocation of Heterogeneous Teams in a Site Defense Task. In: Correll, N., Schwager, M., Otte, M. (eds) Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems. Springer Proceedings in Advanced Robotics, vol 9. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05816-6_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05816-6_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-05815-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-05816-6
eBook Packages: Intelligent Technologies and RoboticsIntelligent Technologies and Robotics (R0)