Efficient Formation of Pheromone Potential Field by Filtering Interaction

Abstract

In the biological world, social insects, such as ants and bees, use a volatile substance called pheromone for their foraging or homing tasks. This study deals with the utilization of the concept of chemical pheromone as an artificial potential field for robotic purposes. This paper first models a pheromone-based potential field, which is constructed through the interaction between amobile robot and radio-frequency identification tags. The emphasis in the modeling of the system is on the possibility of practically implementable ideas. Stability analysis of the pheromone potential field is carried out with the aim of implementing the model on a real robotic system. The comprehensive analysis of the stability provides the criteria for setting the parameters for obtaining the appropriate potential field, leading to a new filter design scheme called a pheromone filter. The designed filter satisfies both the stability and accuracy requirements of the field and facilitates a relatively straightforward and practical implementation for building and shaping the potential field. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is validated through both a computer simulation and a real experiment.