Rendezvous of glowworm-inspired robot swarms at multiple source locations: A sound source based real-robot implementation

Kaipa, KN and Puttappa, A and Hegde, GM and Bidargaddi, SV and Ghose, D (2006) Rendezvous of glowworm-inspired robot swarms at multiple source locations: A sound source based real-robot implementation. In: Ant Colony Optimization and Swarm Intelligence. 5th International Workshop, ANTS 2006, 4-7 Sep. 2006, Brussels, Belgium, pp. 259-269.

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Abstract

This paper presents a novel glowworm metaphor based distributed algorithm that enables a minimalist mobile robot swarm to effectively split into subgroups, exhibit simultaneous taxis towards, and rendezvous at multiple source locations. The locations of interest could represent radiation sources such as nuclear and hazardous aerosol spills spread within an unknown environment. The glowworm algorithm is based on a glowworm swarm optimization (GSO) technique that finds multiple optima of multimodal functions. The algorithm is in the same spirit as the ant-colony optimization (ACO) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithms, but with several significant differences. A key feature of the CSO algorithm is the use of an adaptive local-decision domain, which is used effectively to detect the multiple optimum locations of the multimodal function. We conduct sound source localization experiments, using a set of four wheeled robots (christened Glowworms), to validate the glowworm approach to the problem of multiple source localization. We also examine the behavior of the glowworm algorithm in the presence of uncertainty due to perceptional noise. A comparison with a gradient based approach reveals the superiority of the glowworm algorithm in coping with uncertainty.

Item Type:	Conference Paper
Publication:	Lecture Notes in Computer Science
Publisher:	Springer-Verlag
Additional Information:	Copyright of this article belongs to Springer-Verlag.
Department/Centre:	Division of Electrical Sciences > Electrical Communication Engineering
Date Deposited:	10 Jan 2008
Last Modified:	18 Jan 2012 09:00
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/11348

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