A study on foraging behavior of simple multi-robot system

Abstract

This paper presents the cooperative behavior of multi-robot system in which each robot has a very simple interaction method. The task of the robots is to collect pucks distributed in the field. In this paper, we choose three types of puck distributions and evaluate the performance of the group. At first, we take up the task to collect pucks to unfixed point, and discuss their performance focusing on the relationship between the number of robots and the number of pucks in the largest puck cluster. Secondly, we take up the task to collect pucks to a fixed point. In this paper, we especially take up two types of puck distribution, fractal distribution field and clockface arranged distribution field, and discuss their performance. Thirdly, we take up the task to collect pucks in case that the interaction range between each robot is finite. Here we show the performance of the group focusing on the relation between the number of robot, interaction range, and the number of collected pucks per a robot. Lastly, we refer to the relation between their collective foraging behavior and emergence of swarm intelligence mainly focusing on the number effect of the system.