Distributed area coverage using robot flocks

Abstract

We consider the problem of distributed, autonomous area coverage using a team of mobile mini-robots that have limited sensing and computation capabilities. Specifically, we investigate the following hypothesis - can mini-robots organized in small teams improve the efficiency of area coverage as compared to area coverage using robots that are not organized as teams? We envisage that team formation for mini-robots can be realized through simple, nature-inspired formation control algorithms such as flocking. We provide coordination mechanisms between robots that allow the robots forming a team to dynamically correct their relative position and move in formation, as well as, to dynamically adapt their position and orientation on encountering an obstacle. We have extensively tested our formation control mechanism and area coverage algorithm using accurate models of e-puck robots within the Webots robot simulator, as well as on physical e-puck robots. Our results indicate that our team-based area coverage technique achieves comparable coverage with lower overhead with respect to other distributed area coverage mechanisms for mini-robots.