Swarm Robots
Introduction
A robot swarm is a self-organising multi-robot system, characterised by high redundancy, which embodies ‘swarm intelligence’ a model copied from nature, and seen classically in the behaviour of insects, birds and fish. A hybrid area of research between biology and robotics, it has the potential to be applied to a wide spectrum of environments and conditions, both on the nano and macro scale [1]. These individual simple units must be able to sense, actuate, act homogeneously (although sub groups can also exist), collaborate, communicate and be scalable [2]. You could also draw inspiration from the Sheffield Robotics research group [3].
Task
This project requires you to apply the concept of swarm robotics to a civilian field of interest. By taking advantage of the characteristics of the swarm, you need to develop a real-world proposal where swarm robotics can exhibit a distinct advantage over an existing practice. You must show an advantage not only in operation and outcome, but also consider the initial cost, expected wastage/losses and retrieval to ensure minimal environmental impact [4].
Considerations
· Application
You could look at the how the behaviour of a swarm would be beneficial in this area, perhaps over a large area or in a particularly hazardous area.
· Sensing and actuating
Consider how these robots will sense the environment and move around. What happens if contact is lost with the group, consider reliability, noise, interference and/or hostile agents.
· Swarm Behaviour
You would only be expected to provide an overview of the operation, you are not expected to produce detailed algorithms of how they work and interact.
· Communication
How will they communicate locally, over what range, how do they geo-locate and also ensure they can return home.
· Redundancy
What expected losses do you foresee during the operation of the swarm and what measures will you take to minimise this and retrieve them.
Consider how this solution is future-proofed and minimises any detriment to future generations [5].
References
[1] Marco Dorigo et al. (2014) “Swarm robotics,” Scholarpedia, 9(1):1463. http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Swarm_robotics#Origins [Accessed: October 12, 2023]
[2] Iñaki Navarro, Fernando Matía, "An Introduction to Swarm Robotics", International Scholarly Research Notices, vol. 2013, 2013, [Online]. https://doi.org/10.5402/2013/608164 [Accessed: October 12, 2023]
[3] The University of Sheffield, “The Natural Robotics Lab.” The University of Sheffield. https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/naturalrobotics [Accessed: October 12, 2023]
[4] Schrantz et al. “Swarm Robotics Behaviors and Current Application”, Frontiers in Robotics and AI, Tech. paper 02 April 2020, [Online]. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frobt.2020.00036/full [Accessed October 12, 2023]
[5] The United Nations, “United Nations Sustainable Development.” Sustainable Development Goals. https://sdgs.un.org/ [Accessed: October 12, 2023]