Uniform Dispersal of Cheap Flying Robots in the Presence of Obstacles

Abstract

In previous solutions, the authors considered the uniform dispersal problem (or Filling problem) in which inexpensive robots had to disperse in order to cover an a priori not known area, as well as they also examined the possibilities of solving the Filling in twodimensional regions. The swarm entities had to collectively solve a common task using the simplified cognitive abilities of the robots (i.e., their memory, visibility, and communication capabilities were restricted). In this paper, the authors investigate the possibilities to apply the method for three-dimensional regions. The need for such a solution emerged, as nowadays the number of low-priced flying robots, e.g., quadcopters, drones, has increased heavily. The main research direction is to minimize the hardware requirements of these robots, as doing so is crucial in order to maintain their cost-efficiency. The authors demonstrate that it is still possible to solve the Filling problem in three-dimensional space in the presence of obstacles, while the robots maintain the following hardware requirements: they have a constant amount of memory, minimal visibility, as well as there is no communication between them, and the algorithm terminates in linear runtime. Finally, simulations were carried out to prove the theoretical results.