Abstract
In this talk I present recent research in swarm robotics, the discipline that studies robotic systems composed of swarms of robots tightly interacting and cooperating to reach their goals. In particular, I will present a new type of robot, called swarm-bot, and the results of a number of experiments run with it. A swarm-bot [4,7] is an artifact composed of a swarm of assembled s-bots. The s-bots are mobile robots capable of connecting to, and disconnecting from, other s-bots. In the swarm-bot form, the s-bots are attached to each other and, when needed, become a single robotic system that can move and change its shape. S-bots have relatively simple sensors and motors and limited computational capabilities. A swarm-bot can solve problems that cannot be solved by s-bots alone. In the talk, I first describe the s-bots hardware and the methodology we followed to develop algorithms for their control. Then I illustrate the capabilities of the swarm-bot robotic system by showing video recordings of some of the many experiments we performed to study coordinated movement [1], path formation [8], collective transport [5], shape formation [2,3], and other collective behaviors [6,9,10].
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Baldassarre, G., Trianni, V., Bonani, M., Mondada, F., Dorigo, M., Nolfi, S.: Self-Organized Coordinated Motion in Groups of Physically Connected Robots. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics-Part B 37(1), 224–239 (2007)
Christensen, A.L., O’Grady, R., Dorigo, M.: Morphology Control in a Multirobot System. IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine 14(4), 18–25 (2007)
Christensen, A.L., O’Grady, R., Dorigo, M.: Morphogenesis: Shaping Swarms of Intelligent Robots. Winners of the Best Video Award. In: AAAI 2007, AAAI International Conference, Vancouver, Canada, July 23 (2007), http://www.aivideo.org/2007
Dorigo, M., Trianni, V., Sahin, E., Groß, R., Labella, T.H., Baldassarre, G., Nolfi, S., Deneubourg, J.-L., Mondada, F., Floreano, D., Gambardella, L.M.: Evolving Self-Organizing Behaviors for a Swarm-bot. Autonomous Robots 17(2-3), 223–245 (2004)
Groß, R., Dorigo, M.: Evolution of Solitary and Group Transport Behaviors for Autonomous Robots Capable of Self-Assembling. Adaptive Behavior (in press)
Labella, T.H., Dorigo, M., Deneubourg, J.-L.: Division of Labour in a Group of Robots Inspired by Ants’ Foraging Behaviour. ACM Transactions on Autonomous and Adaptive Systems 1(1), 4–25 (2006)
Mondada, F., Pettinaro, G.C., Guignard, A., Kwee, I.V., Floreano, D., Deneubourg, J.-L., Nolfi, S., Gambardella, L.M., Dorigo, M.: SWARM-BOT: A New Distributed Robotic Concept. Autonomous Robots 17(2-3), 193–221 (2004)
Nouyan, S., Campo, A., Dorigo, M.: Path Formation in a Robot Swarm: Self-Organized Strategies to Find Your Way Home. Swarm Intelligence 2 (in press)
O’Grady, R., Groß, R., Mondada, F., Bonani, M., Dorigo, M.: Self-assembly on Demand in a Group of Physical Autonomous Mobile Robots Navigating Rough Terrain. In: Capcarrère, M.S., Freitas, A.A., Bentley, P.J., Johnson, C.G., Timmis, J. (eds.) ECAL 2005. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 3630, pp. 272–281. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)
Trianni, V., Nolfi, S., Dorigo, M.: Cooperative Hole Avoidance in a Swarm-Bot. Robotics and Autonomous Systems 54(2), 97–103 (2006)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Dorigo, M. (2008). Swarms of Self-assembling Robots. In: Weyns, D., Brueckner, S.A., Demazeau, Y. (eds) Engineering Environment-Mediated Multi-Agent Systems. EEMMAS 2007. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 5049. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-85029-8_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-85029-8_1
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-85028-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-85029-8
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)