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Heterogeneous Teams

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Encyclopedia of Robotics

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Synonyms

Diverse teams; Heterogeneous multi-robot systems

Definitions

A team of robots is heterogeneous when at least one of its members is behaviorally or physically different from any of the other team members.

Overview

Heterogeneity is fundamental to life and commonplace in natural systems. While the scientific field has devoted itself to the analysis of diversity in natural communities for decades, research into the benefits of heterogeneity in engineered teams is relatively nascent. Homogeneous teams are capable of solving complex tasks through coordination and cooperation, yet heterogeneity is even more powerful because it allows for collaboration Prorok et al. (2021); Yang et al. (2018). (Our usage of the terms coordination, cooperation, and collaboration aligns with the definitions in Prorok et al. (2021).)

The aim of this chapter is to provide an overview of heterogeneous teams, from a robotics perspective. We begin by introducing a taxonomy of heterogeneous systems. Then, we...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science and Technology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Amanda Prorok & Matteo Bettini

Authors
  1. Amanda Prorok
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  2. Matteo Bettini
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Correspondence to Amanda Prorok .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Marcelo H. Ang

  2. Department of Computer Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Oussama Khatib

  3. Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy

    Bruno Siciliano

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Guillaume Sartoretti

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Prorok, A., Bettini, M. (2024). Heterogeneous Teams. In: Ang, M.H., Khatib, O., Siciliano, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Robotics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-41610-1_230-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-41610-1_230-1

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