Swarmanoid Project CS 266

Amy Dai & Stacy Wong

Introduction
"Future and Emerging Technologies" project funded by the European Commission Project coordinator: Marco Dorigo Swarm-bots Project (2001-2005) Swarmanoid Project (2006-2010) Both contain three major components: Hardware Simulations Control Swarmanoid Project includes Communication

Swarm-bots

Swarm-Bots
swarm-bot . An artefact composed of a number of simpler, insect-like, robots( s-bots ). Explore self-organizing and self-assembling capabilities of social insects Tasks: Formation change, navigation on rough terrain (movement and following) Scaling the number of s-bots for each task

S-Bot Architecture
Tracks + wheels: treels Rigid and semi-flexible connections Sensors: proximity, light, force, torque, humidity Omni-directional camera LED lights

Swarm-Bot Final Task

Search and rescue mission Find object, coordinated retrieval Simulation: 35 robots, multiple paths, obstacle avoidance Scenario solved by actual robots: 12 s-bots, no obstacles, coordinated search and retrieval

Swarmanoids (2006-2010)
Successor of Swarm-bots project Goal: The design, implementation and control of a novel distributed robotic system for a 3D environment Dynamically connected small autonomous robots which form a swarmanoid Robot Types: eyebots, handbots, footbots Swarmanoid robots share same processors, camera, and most sensors

Task and Environment

Task: Search and retrieval Sub-tasks: Item search - single/multiple objects, attributes, ratio Collection/Grasping - individually and collectively Transport - individually and collectively Deposition/Organization - order, form structures, piles Environment: Enclosed indoor environment

Eyebots
Good at: Sensing and analyzing from high position Flying or attached to ceiling Features: IMX.31 CPU 30 cm in diameter 6 motors 15min flight endurance Ceiling attachment device

Eyebots
Sensors: 3D relative positioning sensor for swarm coordination/communication Altitude determination equipment Vertical and horizontal RGB led rings (local visual communication) 360 camera Distance scanner

Eyebots

Handbots
Good at: Climbing vertical surfaces and manipulating objects Features: Vertical mobility aid - rope launcher to attach to ceiling (assumes a ferromagnetic ceiling) Two grippers for mobility and object manipulation Processors, camera, most sensors shared with footbots and eye-bots.

Handbots

Footbots
Good at: Moving on rough terrain and transporting either objects or other robots Features: Based on prototype from Swarm-bots project 17 cm diameter Hot swappable battery High computational power including float processing Improved sensing ability for environment and interrobot detection

Footbots

Communication
Swarm Intelligence Model observed natural behavior Encode into control and communication systems Networked Swarm Robots have radio wireless interfaces Can transmit large volumes of information for the effective coordination of swarm Project studies how information sent over the radio channels can be reliably/effectively transmitted and coordinate the distributed generation of systemlevel behaviours

New Task Allocation for Robotic Swarms

F. Ducatelle, A. Forster, G.A. Di Caro, L.M. Gambardella

Introduction
How can a robot swarm assign themselves to a task in a distributed and efficient way? Uses two types of robots Eyebots - high level search, identify target object Footbots - visit target areas for detailed search Procedure: Simultaneous announcement of multiple tasks by Eyebots Two types of task allocation Task completed when Eyebots have gathered enough Footbots to complete local task

Light Based Task Allocation

Hardware Multi-colord LEDs Onidirectional camera Behavior: Attraction to yellow light # lights proportional to task When multiple sources, go to closest

Light Based Task Allocation

Behavior: Repulsion from green light Eyebots can display Green + Yellow Footbots will turn away Repulsion within 50 cm

Light Based Task Allocation

Behavior: Repulsion from green light Controls total amount of footbots attracted Footbots attracted to an Eyebot display green to repel others Limits robots and positioning

Light Based Task Allocation

Behavior: Internal Frustration Each footbot has frustration level Up when attracted + repulsed Down when no repulsion At threshold, turn away

Light Based Task Allocation

Behavior: Random Movement Turning in place + moving forward for random amount of time Equivalent to random search of area to find tasks

Gossip Based Task Allocation

IR emitters and receivers for direct communication Eyebots send task announcement indicating how many Footbots are needed Task: id, # workers, comm. hops, route length, age Task information is gossiped Footbots navigate using communication hops Line-of-sight comm. = no obstacles Attracted to new tasks which need help Repelled by distance and congestion ("internal frustration")

Evaluation
Evaluation uses Swarmanoid simulator 3 different scenarios: open environment, environment with obstacles, maze Increase from 10-40 Footbots for each scenario

Experiment (a) Open Environment

Experiment (b) Obstacles

Experiment (c) Maze

Conclusions
Efficiency increases with the number of Footbots (NB: Each task required 9 Footbots in total) Gossip-based communication outperforms light-based Gossip is dependent on IR communication (mostly) working

Discussion
Why the shift from homogeneous to heterogeneous robots? How important is direct communication in swarms? Applications for modular swarm-bots? ...?