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Spatial segregative behaviors in robotic swarms using differential potentials

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Abstract

Segregative behaviors, in which individuals with common characteristics are placed together and set apart from other groups, are commonly found in nature. In swarm robotics, these behaviors can be important in different tasks that require a heterogeneous group of robots to be divided in homogeneous sets according to their physical (sensors, actuators) or logical (algorithms) capabilities. In this paper, we propose a controller that can spatially segregate a swarm of robots in two specific ways: clusters and concentric rings. By segregation, we mean that the swarm is partitioned in groups, with similar robots belonging to a same group, and these groups are spatially separated from each other. We achieve this by adapting and extending the differential potential concept, an abstraction of the mechanism by which cells achieve segregation. We present stability analysis and perform simulated experiments in 2D and 3D spaces in order to show the robustness of the proposed controller. Experiments with a limited number of real robots are also presented as a proof of concept. Results show that our approach allows a swarm of heterogeneous robots to segregate in a stable, compact, and collision-free fashion.

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Notes

  1. Situations in which the size of the groups is unbalanced can lead to non-segregated states. As will be discussed in Sect. 4, we observed these situations when the size of one group is less or equal to 20% the size of the others

  2. Typically, the e-puck camera system can acquire a 40x40 subsampled color image at 4 frames per second. The infrared is able to reliably detect objects within a 6cm range.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Computer Science Department, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil

    Vinicius G. Santos, Paulo A. F. Rezeck, Douglas G. Macharet & Luiz Chaimowicz

  2. Department of Computing and Mechanics, Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica de Minas Gerais, Leopoldina, Brazil

    Anderson G. Pires

  3. Department of Electronic Engineering, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil

    Luciano C. A. Pimenta

  4. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Science and Technology of Mazandaran, Behshahr, Iran

    Reza J. Alitappeh

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  1. Vinicius G. Santos
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Correspondence to Luiz Chaimowicz.

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Santos, V.G., Pires, A.G., Alitappeh, R.J. et al. Spatial segregative behaviors in robotic swarms using differential potentials. Swarm Intell 14, 259–284 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11721-020-00184-0

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