Self-reconfiguration in task space of a holonic structure

Abstract

This paper introduces a methodology developed for the self-organization of a colony of holons in its task space where holons act as intelligent agents in this decentralized robotic structure such that they self localize themselves in the reconfiguration task space of their colony and identify their individual role in the colony re-organization. We term such an n-holon colony where intelligent agents can self-localize in the reconfiguration task space without their individual tasks within the colony configuration being assigned by a central controller, an n-holony. The proposed method is based on a cascaded computation scheme for the self-reconfiguration of the n-holony: self-localization followed by self-organization. The holon communicates with its neighbours in order to acquire knowledge about the colony configuration within a neighbourhood of radius d based on configuration invariants namely the eigenstructures. Self-organization uses this knowledge to take the next action for achieving the desired holony configuration.