RFID-based Communications for a Self-Organising Robot Swarm

Abstract

We investigate the practical questions of building a self-organizing robot swarm, using the iRobot Roomba cleaning robot as an experimental platform. Our goal is to employ self-organization for enhancing the cleaning efficiency of a Roomba swarm. The implementation uses RFID tags both for object and location-based task recognition as well as graffiti- or stigmata-style communication between robots.Easily modifiable rule systems are used for object ontologies and automatic task generation. Long-term planning and central coordination are avoided.