Algorithm for foraging and building task on a novel swarm robotic platform

Abstract

Foraging Task is a typical task on swarm robotic and Building Task (extend from blocks world) is widely used for testing performance of task planning in multi-robots. In this paper we combine foraging and building task as a new type task and implement on our swarm robotic system-SociBuilder. The platform is composed of three parts: active region, modules and many robots called Socibots. In order to execute the task automatically and effectively, we propose a new system architecture including three layers: human-computer interaction layer (HCI), planning layer and execution layer. For the same reason, we put forward a novel algorithm to adjust individual behavior dynamically. As a result of our experiments, Socibots use only local information and do not need communication with others in forage, and fewer individuals are centralized control for building task. The architecture and algorithm are effective in swarm robotics, which guide system to perform complex task with less burden.