Realization of cooperative strategies and swarm behavior in distributed autonomous robotic systems using artificial immune system

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a method of cooperative control (T-cell modeling) and selection of group behavior strategy (B-cell modeling) based on the immune system in a distributed autonomous robotic system (DARS). The immune system is a living body's self-protection and self-maintenance system. These features can be applied to decision making of optimal swarm behavior in a dynamically changing environment. To apply the immune system to DARS, a robot is regarded as a B-cell, each environmental condition as an antigen, a behavior strategy as an antibody and control parameter as a T-cell respectively. When the environmental condition changes, a robot selects an appropriate behavior strategy, and its behavior strategy is stimulated and suppressed by other robots using communication. Finally, the most stimulated strategy is adopted as the swarm behavior strategy. This control scheme is based on clonal selection and idiotopic network hypothesis. It is used for decision making of the optimal swarm strategy. By T-cell modeling, the adaptation ability of the robot is enhanced in dynamic environments.