Supervisory Control of Robot Swarms Using Public Events

Abstract

Supervisory Control Theory (SCT) provides a formal framework for controlling discrete event systems. It has recently been used to generate correct-by-construction controllers for swarm robotics systems. Current SCT frameworks are limited, as they support only (private) events that are observable within the same robot. In this paper, we propose an extended SCT framework that incorporates (public) events that are shared among robots. The extended framework allows to model formally the interactions among the robots. It is evaluated using a case study, where a group of mobile robots need to synchronise their movements in space and time-a requirement that is specified at the formal level. We validate our approach through experiments with groups of e-puck robots.