Abstract
Communication is often required for coordination of collective behaviours. Social insects like ants, termites or bees make use of different forms of communication, which can be roughly classified in three classes: indirect (stigmergic) communication, direct interaction and direct communication. The use of stigmergic communication is predominant in social insects (e.g., the pheromone trails in ants), but also direct interactions (e.g., antennation in ants) and direct communication can be observed (e.g., the waggle dance of honey bee workers). Direct communication may be beneficial when a fast reaction is expected, as for instance, when a danger is detected and countermeasures must be taken. This is the case of hole avoidance, the task studied in this paper: a group of self-assembled robots – called swarm-bot – coordinately explores an arena containing holes, avoiding to fall into them. In particular, we study the use of direct communication in order to achieve a reaction to the detection of a hole faster than with the sole use of direct interactions through physical links. We rely on artificial evolution for the synthesis of neural network controllers, showing that evolving behaviours that make use of direct communication is more effective than exploiting direct interactions only.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Balch, T., Arkin, R.C.: Communication in reactive multiagent robotic systems. Autonomous Robots 1(1), 27–52 (1995)
Baldassarre, G., Nolfi, S., Parisi, D.: Evolution of collective behavior in a team of physically linked robots. In: Gunther, R., Guillot, A., Meyer, J.-A. (eds.) Applications of Evolutionary Computing - Proceedings of the Second European Workshop on Evolutionary Robotics (EvoWorkshops2003: EvoROB), pp. 581–592. Springer, Berlin (2003)
Cao, Y.U., Fukunaga, A.S., Kahng, A.B.: Cooperative mobile robotics: Antecedents and directions. Autonomous Robots 4, 1–23 (1997)
Dorigo, M., Bonabeau, E., Theraulaz, G.: Ant algorithms and stigmergy. Future Generation Computer Systems 16(8), 851–871 (2000)
Dorigo, M., Trianni, V., Sa̧hin, E., Groß, R., Labella, T.H., Baldassarre, G., Nolfi, S., Deneubourg, J.-L., Mondada, F., Floreano, D., Gambardella, L.M.: Evolving self-organizing behaviors for a swarm-bot. Autonomous Robots 17(2-3), 223–245 (2004)
Dudek, G., Jenkin, M., Milios, E.: A taxonomy of multirobot systems. In: Balch, T., Parker, L.E. (eds.) Robot Teams: From Diversity to Polymorphism, A K Peters Ltd., Wellesley (2002)
Goldberg, D.E.: Genetic Algorithms in Search, Optimization and Machine Learning. Addison-Wesley, Reading (1989)
Goss, S., Aron, S., Deneubourg, J.-L., Pasteels, J.M.: Self-organized shortcuts in the argentine ant. Naturwissenchaften 76, 579–581 (1989)
Grassé, P.P.: La reconstruction du nid et les coordinations interindividuelles chez Bellicositermes natalensis et Cubitermes sp. La théorie de la stigmergie: Essai d’interprétation du comportement des termites constructeurs. Insectes Sociaux 6, 41–81 (1959)
Hölldobler, B., Wilson, E.O.: Journey to the Ants: A Story of Scientific Exploration. Bellknap Press/Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA (1994)
Kube, C.R., Zhang, H.: Task modelling in collective robotics. Autonomous Robots 4, 53–72 (1997)
Matarić, M.J.: Using communication to reduce locality in distributed multiagent learning. Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Artificial Intelligence, Special Issue on Learning in DAI Systems 10(3), 357–369 (1998)
Mondada, F., Pettinaro, G.C., Guignard, A., Kwee, I.V., Floreano, D., Deneubourg, J.-L., Nolfi, S., Gambardella, L.M., Dorigo, M.: SWARM-BOT: A new distributed robotic concept. Autonomous Robots 17(2-3), 193–221 (2004)
Montgomery, D.C.: Design and Analysis of Experiments, 5th edn. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York (1997)
Nolfi, S., Floreano, D.: Evolutionary Robotics: The Biology, Intelligence, and Technology of Self-Organizing Machines. MIT Press/Bradford Books, Cambridge, MA (2000)
Seeley, T.: The Wisdom of the Hive. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA (1995)
Trianni, V., Nolfi, S., Dorigo, M.: Hole avoidance: Experiments in coordinated motion on rough terrain. In: Groen, F., Amato, N., Bonarini, A., Yoshida, E., Kröse, B. (eds.) Intelligent Autonomous Systems, vol. 8, pp. 29–36. IOS Press, Amsterdam (2004)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2004 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Trianni, V., Labella, T.H., Dorigo, M. (2004). Evolution of Direct Communication for a Swarm-bot Performing Hole Avoidance. In: Dorigo, M., Birattari, M., Blum, C., Gambardella, L.M., Mondada, F., Stützle, T. (eds) Ant Colony Optimization and Swarm Intelligence. ANTS 2004. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 3172. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-28646-2_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-28646-2_12
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-22672-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-28646-2
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive