Swarm robotic odor source localization using ant colony algorithm

Abstract

A multiple odor sources search strategy based on a modified ant algorithm is proposed to enable the multi-robot system to search for the odor sources that exist in the indoor environment by imitating the forage behavior of ant colony. The search strategy includes two parts, which are odor tracking strategy and odor sources localization strategy. The tracking strategy consists of a modified ant colony algorithm. The localization strategy is an odor source verification procedure introduced into the tracking process to localize multiple odor sources. Simulation results show that the proposed strategy can effectively enable the robot system to search and determine the odor sources quickly and accurately.