Internal agent states: experiments using the swarm leader concept

Abstract

In recent years, an understanding of the operating principles and stability of natural swarms has proven to be a useful tool for the design and control of artificial robotic agents. Many robotic systems, whose design or control principals are inspired by behavioural aspects of real biological systems such as leader-follower relationship, have been developed. We introduced an algorithm which successfully enhances the navigation performance of a swarm of robots using the swarm leader concept. This paper presents some applications based on that work using the simulations and experimental implementation using a swarming behaviour test-bed at the University of Strathclyde. Experimental and simulation results match closely in a way that confirms the efficiency of the algorithm as well as its applicability.