Collective Robotic Intelligence

Abstract

In this paper, we examine the problem of controlling multiple behaviour-based autonomous robots.Based on observations made from the study of social insects, we propose ve simple mechanisms used to invoke group behaviour in simple sensor-based mobile robots.The proposed mechanisms allow populations of behaviour-based robots to perform tasks without centralized control or use of explicit communication.We h a ve v eri ed our collective control strategies by designing a robot population simulator called SimbotCity.W e h a ve also constructed a system of ve homogeneous sensor-based mobile robots, capable of achieving simple collective tasks, to demonstrate the feasibility of some of the control mechanisms.