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Autonomous foraging with a pack of robots based on repulsion, attraction and influence

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Abstract

In this work, we propose a swarm algorithm with tendencies of repulsion, attraction, and influence for implementation in a pack of autonomous robots and with sensory limitations. The pack of robots performs an object transport task with a foraging approach; each object is distributed within a foraging zone and has to be transported to a specific destination (nest). The main challenge involves solving several important subtasks: search, navigation, transportation, localization and harvesting; which are associated with different stimuli in the environment. The main contribution is that the RAOI approach is extended, proposing multiple influence stimuli that are activated in a finite state machine, which is implemented in each individual without affecting swarm decentralized properties. From this extended RAOI scheme, the task performance has been improved by changing robot parameters; for this, the results are quantified with task execution time and are validated through simulations and implementations.

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Acknowledgements

Authors are grateful to Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT) and Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León (UANL), for their support and sponsorship with the number of scholarship 334681, for the realization of this project.

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  1. Facultad de Ingeniería Mecánica y Eléctrica, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Ave. Universidad S/N, Cd. Universitaria, CP 66455, San Nicolás de los Garza, NL, Mexico

    Erick Ordaz-Rivas, Angel Rodriguez-Liñan & Luis Torres-Treviño

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  1. Erick Ordaz-Rivas
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  2. Angel Rodriguez-Liñan
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  3. Luis Torres-Treviño
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Correspondence to Luis Torres-Treviño.

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Ordaz-Rivas, E., Rodriguez-Liñan, A. & Torres-Treviño, L. Autonomous foraging with a pack of robots based on repulsion, attraction and influence. Auton Robot 45, 919–935 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10514-021-09994-5

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