Minimalist Coherent Swarming of Wireless Networked Autonomous Mobile Robots

Abstract

This paper presents the results of simulations investigating a decentralised control algorithm able to maintain the coherence of a swarm of radio-connected robots. In this work the radius of communication is considerably less than the global diameter of the swarm. The study explores coherent movement towards a beacon while avoiding obstacles and maintaining global shape. All behaviours are emergent as the study constrains itself to using only a restricted range omnidirectional radio, a beacon sensor and avoiding sensors. In spite of such restrictions we achieve the proposed aims. Moreover, the fact that the algorithm relies only on local information makes it highly scalable with an increase in the number of robots. The proposed approach also shows graceful degradation in the presence of noise.