Hierarchical congestion control for robotic swarms

Abstract

Safe and efficient navigation of robotic swarms is an important research problem. One of the main challenges in this area is to avoid congestion, which usually happens when large groups of robots share the same environment. In this paper, we propose the use of hierarchical abstractions in conjunction with simple traffic control rules based on virtual forces to avoid congestion in swarm navigation. We perform simulated and real experiments in order to study the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. Results show that our approach allows the swarm to navigate without congestions in a smooth and coherent fashion, being suitable for large groups of robots.