Hierarchical Organization of Robots: A Social Simulation Study

The robots know where they are and can locate objects in the map. However, over time some functions will fail in some robots, so an organisational structure would be advantageous in order to avoid having to repair each of the robots once they fail or once their functionality is reduced. If one robot fails, its corresponding “area of responsibility” would not be covered properly. On the other hand its fellow robots might have “spare time” which they could use to help out. As long as the group can compensate for deficiencies of single robots and they can fulfil their job in the given amount of time (during the night) then the group of robots can function autonomously. The next day (or once a week) the robots can be repaired during routine checkup, but their night shift job would not be interrupted.