Bioinspired algorithm for area surveillance using autonomous robots

Abstract

Territorial surveillance plays a constantly increasing role in security. However, completely automatic surveillance using autonomous robots is hard to implement and maintain. Current methods described in literature propose systems that include direct communication of the robots or the use of a centralised system to coordinate the robots. These systems are prone to equipment failure and/or malicious attacks to the centralised system. In this paper, we propose a bioinspired algorithm that allows indirect communication between the robots that are considered minimally equipped. This is achieved by applying a parallel and distributed technique inspired by the emergent behaviour of social insects, namely ant colonies. In particular, the development of a collective memory for robots and areas covered is achieved subsequently through self-organisation of the autonomous robots to a continuous dynamic coverage of the test space. The algorithm is shown to have a robust behaviour and competitive performance. Several simulations run for various space sizes, different number of robots, different pheromone evaporation rates as well various percentages of space covered by obstacles. In all cases the efficacy of the proposed algorithm has been successfully proven when compared with other well known techniques.