Teamwork by swarms of all terrain mobile robots

Abstract

The classic monolithic design of robot agents shows all its limits when tasks require capabilities which go beyond those initially planned. Robot collaboration seems to be a possible answer to the otherwise ever increasing complexity of mechanical and electrical design. Swarm robotics, by exploiting the power of interaction among members, offers such an answer. Simple units can in fact collaborate in achieving their common goal without the need of being aware at all of the rest of the group. The resilience achieved in this way makes the paradigm very appealing in all those applications, where mechanical or software failure may jeopardise the success of the overall mission. The present work summarizes the ongoing research which is being carried out by the author and his team. The hardware and software employed as well as some application experiments are described and discussed.