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A scaling law between the number of multirobots and their task performance

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Abstract

We researched the efficiency of cooperative behavior using interacting multirobots. In this paper, we assume simple robots with a drive system and the simplest means of interaction, and examine the collective behavior through the task of gathering pucks in a field. The efficiency of group behavior is evaluated by the relation between the number of robots and the task completion time. To evaluate the efficiency of group behavior, we measure the exponent β, which is obtained from the scaling relation between the task completion time and the number of robots. The effectiveness of group behavior is investigated for fractal distributions of pucks. We research their behavior for fractal distributions of pucks and find out that the optimum value of β depends on the dimension of the puck distributions. We also propose a simplified state transition diagram of the group to analyse their characteristics. These results enable us to describe the condition of the field by a variable in the state transition diagram.

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Sugawara, K., Yoshihara, I. & Abe, K. A scaling law between the number of multirobots and their task performance. Artif Life Robotics 3, 122–126 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02481259

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02481259

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