Braitenberg swarm vehicles for odour plume tracking in laminar airflow

Abstract

This paper presents an algorithm to trace an odour plume using swarm robots in laminar airflow. The algorithm proposed here aims to bridge the gap between single and multiple element systems by mimicking and enhancing biologically derived strategies for odor plume tracking. Simulations were carried out on Webots to verify the potential of the algorithm. A simple gas sensor model was introduced to mimic the response of a real metal oxide sensor in the simulation. A gas sensor model was introduced based on the response of metal oxide sensor (MOS) to closely mimic and provide real environment condition. Different weightage configurations of the gas sensor, k <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">g</sub> and wind sensor, k <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">w</sub> are compared to find its effects on the performance and behavior of the purposed algorithm. It was found that robots separated from the swarm can still perform the plume tracking task. Also, multiple entity systems show an increase in performance compared to single entity robots.