
Research Article
Evolving and Controlling Perimeter, Rendezvous, and Foraging Behaviors in a Computation-Free Robot Swarm
@INPROCEEDINGS{10.4108/eai.3-12-2015.2262390, author={Matthew Johnson and Daniel Brown}, title={Evolving and Controlling Perimeter, Rendezvous, and Foraging Behaviors in a Computation-Free Robot Swarm}, proceedings={9th EAI International Conference on Bio-inspired Information and Communications Technologies (formerly BIONETICS)}, publisher={ACM}, proceedings_a={BICT}, year={2016}, month={5}, keywords={swarm robotics evolutionary algorithms computation-free robot controlling collective behaviors}, doi={10.4108/eai.3-12-2015.2262390} }
- Matthew Johnson
Daniel Brown
Year: 2016
Evolving and Controlling Perimeter, Rendezvous, and Foraging Behaviors in a Computation-Free Robot Swarm
BICT
EAI
DOI: 10.4108/eai.3-12-2015.2262390
Abstract
Designing and controlling the collective behavior of a swarm often requires complex range, bearing sensors, and peer-to-peer communication strategies. Recent work studying swarm of robots that have no computational power has shown that complex behaviors such as aggregation and object clustering can be produced from extremely simple control policies and sensing capability. We extend previous work on computation-free swarm behaviors and show that it is possible to evolve simple control policies to form a perimeter around a target, rendezvous to a specific location, and perform foraging. We also demonstrate that simple manipulations of the environment can be used to control, these collective behaviors. The robustness and expressiveness of these behaviors, combined with the simple requirements for control and sensing, demonstrate the feasibility of implementing swarm behaviors at small scales or in extreme environments.