Cooperative hole avoidance in a swarm-bot

Evolving an Integrated Phototaxis and Hole-avoidance Behavior for a Swarm-bot

This article is on the subject of evolving neural network controllers for cooperative, mobile robots. We evolve controllers for combined hole-avoidance and phototaxis in a group of physically connected, autonomous robots called s-bots, each with limited sensing capabilities. We take a systematic approach to finding a suitable fitness function, an appropriate neural network structure, and we exp...

Efficient Neuro-Evolution of Hole-avoidance and Phototaxis for a Swarm-bot

Hole Avoidance: Experiments in Coordinated Motion on Rough Terrain

In this paper, we study coordinated motion in a swarm robotic system, called a swarm-bot. A swarm-bot is a self-assembling and self-organizing artifact, composed of a swarm of s-bots, mobile robots with the ability to connect to and disconnect from each other. The swarm-bot concept is particularly suited for tasks that require abilities of navigation on rough terrain, such as space exploration ...

Evolution of Coordinated Motion Behaviors in a Group of Self-Assembled Robots

In this work, we introduce a swarm robotic system, called a swarm-bot. A swarm-bot is a self-assembling and self-organizing artifact composed of a swarm of s-bots, mobile robots with the ability to connect to/disconnect from each other. In particular, we address the problem of synthesizing controllers for the swarm-bot using Artificial Evolution. We describe the motivation behind the choice of ...

Evolution of Direct Communication for a Swarm-bot Performing Hole Avoidance

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 a...