A continuous model for the simulation of manufacturing swarm robotics

Abstract

Abstract Manufacturing large and/or complex structural components is today non-trivial and far-too expensive, due to limitations in the state-of-the-art production processes. Swarm robotics could then bring a different perspective and it may promise flexible, autonomous, and highly robust solutions for a large variety of applications; hence, its adoption in industry and construction may change manufacturing rules. The present contribution introduces a continuous model to capture the behavior of a swarm of manufacturing agents (e.g., drones, 3D printers, etc.. ) as well as a very simple, but effective, numerical implementation to simulate the evolution of such a swarm. The paper also presents one- and two-dimensional examples, showing the potentiality of the proposed approach in predicting swarm behaviors.