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Autonomous role assignment and task allocation in scalable swarm robotic systems using local interactions

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Abstract

This paper proposes a novel method for autonomous role assignment and task allocation using the response threshold model through local interactions in scalable swarm robotic systems. The response threshold describes sensitivity for pheromones of ants. In reality, there are high and low pheromone sensitivity ants. It is known that the pheromone sensitivity of ants is related to autonomous role assignment and task allocation. In conventional response threshold models, it is assumed that an ant can gain the number of all the workers in an ant colony. However, it is difficult for an ant to gain and deal with all the workers, because ant functions are very limited. Thus, we use a response threshold model that refers to the number of encountered foraging ants instead of the number of all the workers. In this study, we apply the proposed method to ant foraging problems and show the robustness of the proposed method in dynamic environments.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant number JP 18K11554.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Toyo University, 2100 Kujirai, Kawagoe, Saitama, 350-8585, Japan

    Kazuaki Yamada

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  1. Kazuaki Yamada
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Correspondence to Kazuaki Yamada.

Additional information

This work was presented in part at the 2nd International Symposium on Swarm Behavior and Bio-Inspired Robotics, Kyoto, October 29–November 1, 2017.

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Yamada, K. Autonomous role assignment and task allocation in scalable swarm robotic systems using local interactions. Artif Life Robotics 23, 636–644 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10015-018-0500-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10015-018-0500-8

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