Resilient source seeking with robot swarms

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Acuaviva, Antonio, Bautista, Jesus, Yao, Weijia, Jimenez, Juan, de Marina, Hector Garcia
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2023
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author Acuaviva, Antonio
Bautista, Jesus
Yao, Weijia
Jimenez, Juan
de Marina, Hector Garcia
author_facet Acuaviva, Antonio
Bautista, Jesus
Yao, Weijia
Jimenez, Juan
de Marina, Hector Garcia
contents We present a solution for locating the source, or maximum, of an unknown scalar field using a swarm of mobile robots. Unlike relying on the traditional gradient information, the swarm determines an ascending direction to approach the source with arbitrary precision. The ascending direction is calculated from measurements of the field strength at the robot locations and their relative positions concerning the centroid. Rather than focusing on individual robots, we focus the analysis on the density of robots per unit area to guarantee a more resilient swarm, i.e., the functionality remains even if individuals go missing or are misplaced during the mission. We reinforce the robustness of the algorithm by providing sufficient conditions for the swarm shape so that the ascending direction is almost parallel to the gradient. The swarm can respond to an unexpected environment by morphing its shape and exploiting the existence of multiple ascending directions. Finally, we validate our approach numerically with hundreds of robots. The fact that a large number of robots always calculate an ascending direction compensates for the loss of individuals and mitigates issues arising from the actuator and sensor noises.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2309_02937
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Resilient source seeking with robot swarms
Acuaviva, Antonio
Bautista, Jesus
Yao, Weijia
Jimenez, Juan
de Marina, Hector Garcia
Robotics
Systems and Control
We present a solution for locating the source, or maximum, of an unknown scalar field using a swarm of mobile robots. Unlike relying on the traditional gradient information, the swarm determines an ascending direction to approach the source with arbitrary precision. The ascending direction is calculated from measurements of the field strength at the robot locations and their relative positions concerning the centroid. Rather than focusing on individual robots, we focus the analysis on the density of robots per unit area to guarantee a more resilient swarm, i.e., the functionality remains even if individuals go missing or are misplaced during the mission. We reinforce the robustness of the algorithm by providing sufficient conditions for the swarm shape so that the ascending direction is almost parallel to the gradient. The swarm can respond to an unexpected environment by morphing its shape and exploiting the existence of multiple ascending directions. Finally, we validate our approach numerically with hundreds of robots. The fact that a large number of robots always calculate an ascending direction compensates for the loss of individuals and mitigates issues arising from the actuator and sensor noises.
title Resilient source seeking with robot swarms
topic Robotics
Systems and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.02937