Abstract
Foraging is a benchmark problem in robotics - especially for distributed autonomous robotic systems. The systematic study of robot foraging is important for several reasons: firstly, because foraging is a metaphor for the broad class of problems integrating robotic exploration, navigation and object identification, manipulation and transport; secondly, in multi-robot systems foraging is a canonical problem for the study of robot-robot cooperation; and thirdly, many and diverse actual or potential real-world applications for robotics are instances of foraging robots, for example, for cleaning, harvesting, search and rescue, landmine clearance or planetary astrobiology. This paper sets out a theoretical framework, structured upon an abstract model and taxonomy of robot foraging. A framework which, it is hoped, might provide the basis of a principled approach to the engineering of future real-world robot foraging systems.
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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 subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Balch, T.: Taxonomies of multirobot task and reward. In: Balch, T., Parker, L. (eds.) Robot Teams, pp. 23–35. A K Peters (2002)
Bonabeau, E., Theraulaz, G., Deneubourg, J.-L.: Fixed response thresholds and the regulation of division of labour in insect societies. Bulletin of Mathematical Biology 60, 753–807 (1998)
Dudek, G., Jenkin, M., Milios, E., Wilkes, D.: A taxonomy for multi-agent robotics. Autonomous Robots 3, 375–397 (1996)
Gerkey, B.P., Matarić, M.J.: A formal analysis and taxonomy of task allocation in multi-robot systems. International Journal of Robotics Research 23(9), 939–954 (2004)
Krieger, M., Billeter, J.: The call of duty: Self-organised task allocation in a population of up to twelve mobile robots. Jour. of Robotics & Autonomous Systems 30, 65–84 (2000)
Lerman, K.: Mathematical model of foraging in a group of robots: Effect of interference. Autonomous Robots 13(2), 127–141 (2002)
Lerman, K., Jones, C., Galstyan, A., Matarić, M.J.: Analysis of dynamic task allocation in multi-robot systems. Int. Journal of Robotics Research 25(3), 225–242 (2006)
Liu, W., Winfield, A.F.T., Sa, J.: Modelling swarm robotic systems: A case study in collective foraging. In: Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems (TAROS 2007), Aberystwyth, pp. 25–32 (2007)
Liu, W., Winfield, A.F.T., Sa, J., Chen, J., Dou, L.: Towards energy optimisation: Emergent task allocation in a swarm of foraging robots. Adaptive Behaviour 15(3), 289–305 (2007)
Martinoli, A., Easton, K., Agassounon, W.: Modeling swarm robotic systems: A case study in collaborative distributed manipulation. Int. Journal of Robotics Research, Special Issue on Experimental Robotics 23(4), 415–436 (2004)
Østergaard, E.H., Sukhatme, G.S., Matarić, M.J.: Emergent bucket brigading: A simple mechanism for improving performance in multi-robot constrained-space foraging tasks. In: Proc. Int. Conf. on Autonomous Agents, Montreal, Canada (2001)
Winfield, A.F.T.: Foraging robots. In: Meyers, R.A. (ed.) Encyclopedia of Complexity and System Science. Springer, Heidelberg (in press, 2009)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Winfield, A.F.T. (2009). Towards an Engineering Science of Robot Foraging. In: Asama, H., Kurokawa, H., Ota, J., Sekiyama, K. (eds) Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems 8. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-00644-9_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-00644-9_16
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-00643-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-00644-9
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)