Research Advance in Swarm Robotics

The research progress of swarm robotics is reviewed in details. The swarm robotics inspired from nature is a combination of swarm intelligence and robotics, which shows a great potential in several aspects. First of all, the cooperation of nature swarm and swarm intelligence are briefly introduced, and the special features of the swarm robotics are summarized compared to a single robot and other multi-individual systems. Then the modeling methods for swarm robotics are described by a list of several widely used swarm robotics entity projects and simulation platforms. Finally, as a main part of this paper, the current research on the swarm robotic algorithms are presented in detail, including cooperative control mechanisms in swarm robotics for flocking, navigating and searching applications.

A Novel Analytical Model of Brain Tumor Based on Swarm Robotics

A tumor is referred to as“intracranial hard neoplasm”if it grows near the brain or central spinal vessel(neoplasm).In certain cases,it is possible that the responsible cells are neurons situated deep inside the brain’s structure.This article discusses a strategy for halting the progression of brain tumor.A precise and accurate analytical model of brain tumors is the foundation of this strategy.It is based on an algorithm known as kill chain interior point(KCIP),which is the result of a merger of kill chain and interior point algorithms,as well as a precise and accurate analytical model of brain tumors.The inability to obtain a clear picture of tumor cell activity is the biggest challenge in this endeavor.Based on the motion of swarm robots,which are considered a subset of artificial intelligence,this article proposes a new notion of this kind of behavior,which may be used in various situations.The KCIP algorithm that follows is used in the analytical model to limit the development of certain cell types.According to the findings,it seems that different KCIP speed ratios are beneficial in preventing the development of brain tumors.It is hoped that this study will help researchers better understand the behavior of brain tumors,so as to develop a new drug that is effective in eliminating the tumor cells.

Swarm robotics platform for intelligent interaction

Background This paper introduces a versatile edutainment platform based on a swarm robotics system that can support multiple interaction methods.We aim to create a re-usable open-ended tangible tool for a variety of educational and entertainment scenarios by utilizing the unique advantages of swarm robots such as flexible mobility,mutual perception,and free control of robot number.Methods Compared with the tangible user interface,the swarm user interface(SUI)possesses more flexible locomotion and more controllable widgets.However,research on SUI is still limited to system construction,and the upper interaction modes along with vivid applications have not been sufficiently studied.Results This study illustrates possible interaction modes for swarm robotics and feasible application scenarios based on these fundamental interaction modes.We also discuss the implementation of swarm robotics(including software and hardware),then design several simple experiments to verify the location accuracy of the swarm robotics system.

Application of Null Space Based Behavior Control to the Swarm Robot’s Control

This paper proposes a solution to controls warm robots in an effort to avoid obstacles, moving to the goal by the method of Null Space based Behavior (NSB) control of an individual in the swarm. This paper also provides the stability analysis of the converging process by investigating the relationship between single agents, and the analysis result is proved by using the Lyapunov theory. Finally, the simulation results in two-dimensional space have confirmed the obtained theoretical results.

Dynamic Frontier-Led Swarming:Multi-Robot Repeated Coverage in Dynamic Environments

A common assumption of coverage path planning research is a static environment.Such environments require only a single visit to each area to achieve coverage.However,some real-world environments are characterised by the presence of unexpected,dynamic obstacles.They require areas to be revisited periodically to maintain an accurate coverage map,as well as reactive obstacle avoidance.This paper proposes a novel swarmbased control algorithm for multi-robot exploration and repeated coverage in environments with unknown,dynamic obstacles.The algorithm combines two elements:frontier-led swarming for driving exploration by a group of robots,and pheromone-based stigmergy for controlling repeated coverage while avoiding obstacles.We tested the performance of our approach on heterogeneous and homogeneous groups of mobile robots in different environments.We measure both repeated coverage performance and obstacle avoidance ability.Through a series of comparison experiments,we demonstrate that our proposed strategy has superior performance to recently presented multi-robot repeated coverage methodologies.

Orderly hysteresis in field-driven robot swarm active matter

Boundary effect and time-reversal symmetry are hot topics in active matter. We present a biology-inspired robotenvironment-interaction active matter system with the field-drive motion and the rules of resource search, resource consumption, and resource recovery. In an environmental compression–expansion cycle, the swarm emerges a series of boundary-dependent phase transitions, and the whole evolution process is time-reversal symmetry-breaking;we call this phenomenon “orderly hysteresis”. We present the influence of the environmental recovery rate on the dynamic collective behavior of the swarm.

SUNDER:Self-organized grouping and entrapping method for swarms in multitarget environments

For swarm robots moving in a harsh or uncharted outdoor environment without GPS guidance and global communication,algorithms that rely on global-based information are infeasible.Typically,traditional gene regulatory networks(GRNs)that achieve superior performance in forming trapping pattern towards targets require accurate global positional information to guide swarm robots.This article presents a gene regulatory network with Self-organized grouping and entrapping method for swarms(SUNDER-GRN)to achieve adequate trapping performance with a large-scale swarm in a confined multitarget environment with access to only local information.A hierarchical self-organized grouping method(HSG)is proposed to structure subswarms in a distributed way.In addition,a modified distributed controller,with a relative coordinate system that is established to relieve the need for global information,is leveraged to facilitate subswarms entrapment toward different targets,thus improving the global multi-target entrapping performance.The results demonstrate the superiority of SUNDERGRN in the performance of structuring subswarms and entrapping 10 targets with 200 robots in an environment confined by obstacles and with only local information accessible.

Artificial moment method for swarm robot formation control

The purpose of this paper is to develop a general control method for swarm robot formation control. Firstly,an attraction-segment leader-follower formation graph is presented for formation representations. The model of swarm robot systems is described. According to the results and two kinds of artificial moments defined as leader-attraction moment and follower-attraction moment,a novel artificial moment method is proposed for swarm robot formation control. The principle of the method is introduced and the motion controller of robots is designed. Finally,the stability of the formation control system is proved. The simulations show that both the formation representation graph and the formation control method are valid and feasible.

Path Planning of Continuum Robot Based on a New Improved Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm

Continuum robot is a new type of biomimetic robot,which realizes the motion by bending some parts of its body.So its path planning becomes more difficult even compared with hyper-redundant robots.In this paper a circular arc spline interpolating method is proposed for the robot shape description,and a new two-stage position-selectable-updating particle swarm optimization(TPPSO)algorithm is put forward to solve this path planning problem.The algorithm decomposes the standard PSO velocity’s single-step updating formula into twostage multi-point updating,specifically adopting three points as candidates and selecting the best one as the updated position in the first half stage,and similarly taking seven points as candidates and selecting the best one as the final position in the last half stage.This scheme refines and widens each particle’s searching trajectory,increases the updating speed of the individual best,and improves the converging speed and precision.Aiming at the optimization objective to minimize the sum of all the motion displacements of every segmental points and all the axial stretching or contracting displacements of every segment,the TPPSO algorithm is used to solve the path planning problem.The detailed solution procedure is presented.Numerical examples of five path planning cases show that the proposed algorithm is simple,robust,and efficient.

Cognitive Supervisor for an Autonomous Swarm of Robots

As a sequel to our recent work [1], in which a control framework was developed for large-scale joint swarms of unmanned ground (UGV) and aerial (UAV) vehicles, the present paper proposes cognitive and meta-cognitive supervisor models for this kind of distributed robotic system. The cognitive supervisor model is a formalization of the recently Nobel-awarded research in brain science on mammalian and human path integration and navigation, performed by the hippocampus. This is formalized here as an adaptive Hamiltonian path integral, and efficiently simulated for implementation on robotic vehicles as a pair of coupled nonlinear Schr?dinger equations. The meta-cognitive supervisor model is a modal logic of actions and plans that hinges on a weak causality relation that specifies when atoms may change their values without specifying that they must change. This relatively simple logic is decidable yet sufficiently expressive to support the level of inference needed in our application. The atoms and action primitives of the logic framework also provide a straight-forward way of connecting the meta-cognitive supervisor with the cognitive supervisor, with other modules, and to the meta-cognitive supervisors of other robotic platforms in the swarm.

Swarm intelligence based dynamic obstacle avoidance for mobile robots under unknown environment using WSN

To solve dynamic obstacle avoidance problems, a novel algorithm was put forward with the advantages of wireless sensor network (WSN). In view of moving velocity and direction of both the obstacles and robots, a mathematic model was built based on the exposure model, exposure direction and critical speeds of sensors. Ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm based on bionic swarm intelligence was used for solution of the multi-objective optimization. Energy consumption and topology of the WSN were also discussed. A practical implementation with real WSN and real mobile robots were carried out. In environment with multiple obstacles, the convergence curve of the shortest path length shows that as iterative generation grows, the length of the shortest path decreases and finally reaches a stable and optimal value. Comparisons show that using sensor information fusion can greatly improve the accuracy in comparison with single sensor. The successful path of robots without collision validates the efficiency, stability and accuracy of the proposed algorithm, which is proved to be better than tradition genetic algorithm (GA) for dynamic obstacle avoidance in real time.

Bio-inspired environmental adaptability of swarm active matter

How biologically active matters survive adaptively in complex and changeable environments is a common concern of scientists.Genetics,evolution and natural selection are vital factors in the process of biological evolution and are also the key to survival in harsh environments.However,it is challenging to intuitively and accurately reproduce such longterm adaptive survival processes in the laboratory.Although simulation experiments are intuitive and efficient,they lack fidelity.Therefore,we propose to use swarm robots to study the adaptive process of active matter swarms in complex and changeable environments.Based on a self-built virtual environmental platform and a robot swarm that can interact with the environment,we introduce the concept of genes into the robot system,giving each robot unique digital genes,and design robot breeding methods and rules for gene mutations.Our previous work[Proc.Natl.Acad.Sci.USA 119 e2120019119(2022)]has demonstrated the effectiveness of this system.In this work,by analyzing the relationship between the genetic traits of the population and the characteristics of environmental resources,and comparing different experimental conditions,we verified in both robot experiments and corresponding simulation experiments that agents with genetic inheritance can survive for a long time under the action of natural selection in periodically changing environments.We also confirmed that in the robot system,both breeding and mutation are essential factors.These findings can help answer the practical scientific question of how individuals and swarms can successfully adapt to complex,dynamic,and unpredictable actual environments.

Motion Localization with Optic Flow for Autonomous Robot Teams and Swarms

The ability to localize moving objects within the environment is critical for autonomous robotic systems. This paper describes a moving object detection and localization system using multiple robots equipped with inexpensive optic flow sensors. We demonstrate an architecture capable of detecting motion along a plane by collecting three sets of one-dimensional optic flow data. The detected object is then localized with respect to each of the robots in the system.

Particle swarm optimization-based algorithm of a symplectic method for robotic dynamics and control

Multibody system dynamics provides a strong tool for the estimation of dynamic performances and the optimization of multisystem robot design. It can be described with differential algebraic equations(DAEs). In this paper, a particle swarm optimization(PSO) method is introduced to solve and control a symplectic multibody system for the first time. It is first combined with the symplectic method to solve problems in uncontrolled and controlled robotic arm systems. It is shown that the results conserve the energy and keep the constraints of the chaotic motion, which demonstrates the efficiency, accuracy, and time-saving ability of the method. To make the system move along the pre-planned path, which is a functional extremum problem, a double-PSO-based instantaneous optimal control is introduced. Examples are performed to test the effectiveness of the double-PSO-based instantaneous optimal control. The results show that the method has high accuracy, a fast convergence speed, and a wide range of applications.All the above verify the immense potential applications of the PSO method in multibody system dynamics.

Robot stereo vision calibration method with genetic algorithm and particle swarm optimization

Accurate stereo vision calibration is a preliminary step towards highprecision visual positioning of robot. Combining with the characteristics of genetic algorithm (GA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO), a threestage calibration method based on hybrid intelligent optimization is proposed for nonlinear camera models in this paper. The motivation is to improve the accuracy of the calibration process. In this approach, the stereo vision calibration is considered as an optimization problem that can be solved by the GA and PSO. The initial linear values can be obtained in the first stage. Then in the second stage, two cameras' parameters are optimized separately. Finally, the integrated optimized calibration of two models is obtained in the third stage. Direct linear transformation (DLT), GA and PSO are individually used in three stages. It is shown that the results of every stage can correctly find nearoptimal solution and it can be used to initialize the next stage. Simulation analysis and actual experimental results indicate that this calibration method works more accurate and robust in noisy environment compared with traditional calibration methods. The proposed method can fulfill the requirements of robot sophisticated visual operation.

多机协同智能发展战略研究

多个自主智能系统通过信息、行为交互构成的多机协同智能,代表着未来智能系统的必然发展趋势,是我国新一代人工智能规划部署的主攻方向,也是支撑国防、社会安全的核心技术和推动制造业由大到强的必由之路。开展突破多机协同智能技术发展研究,对于推动我国军事智能、智能产业高质量发展、加快工业转型升级具有重要意义。本文基于多机协同智能系统当前面临的难以适应复杂任务这一挑战,从基础理论和核心关键技术两个层面出发,系统地梳理了多机协同智能的研究现状,分析了制约基础理论与关键技术发展的主要瓶颈性问题,并以多机协同智能制造为典型应用,剖析理论与技术发展中存在的问题。研究认为,多机协同智能将朝着人机群组智能的方向发展,为抢占发展先机,需及早布局人机群组智能的基础理论探索,加速核心技术突破,并加快应用示范。

基于区块链声誉管理的拜占庭机器人识别方法

基于区块链技术,提出具有身份认证和任务监管的声誉管理系统(Reputation Management System with Identity Authentication and Task Supervisor,RMS-IATS),解决群机器人内拜占庭机器人的识别问题,避免拜占庭机器人对群机器人造成安全威胁.首先,改进经典的基于区块链的群机器人声誉管理系统(Reputation Management System,RMS),引入惩罚因子,针对长期存在拜占庭行为的机器人实施更严厉的声誉值惩罚.其次,为了加快拜占庭机器人的识别速度,设计一种身份认证协议,将身份非法的机器人赋予一个较低的初始声誉值.再者,设计一种双层通信网络,用于机器人间的通信,解决群机器人系统因采用区块链技术带来的通信延迟问题.最后,通过仿真实验验证基于区块链的RMS-IATS和双层通信网络的有效性.相比经典的群机器人RMS,RMS-IATS在仿真模拟中识别不同类型拜占庭机器人所需的时间更短.相比使用区块链技术,在系统中使用双层通信网络进行通信时,可大幅减少系统的最大通信延迟.

基于改进Bytetrack的群体机器人跟踪算法

针对群体机器人在实际跟踪场景中常常受到遮挡、目标密集、尺度变换等因素的影响导致漏检、轨迹中断和ID频繁跳变等问题,基于Bytetrack跟踪算法,改进了卡尔曼滤波的状态变量,提出了噪声尺度自适应卡尔曼算法(NASA-Kalman),并在卡尔曼滤波中引入加速度参数(AMA)提高跟踪的准确性。实验表明,在MOTA、MOTP方面相较于原算法均有所提高。为了进一步验证跟踪算法的有效性,在MOT20数据集上对算法进行了评估,在MOTA、MOTP方面分别提高了0.65%和1.26%。

虚拟信息素在群体机器人防拥堵中的研究

为解决群体机器人导航时的拥堵问题,在分析防拥堵方案的基础上,借鉴蚁群算法以及蚂蚁觅食行为,提出了一种基于虚拟信息素的分布式协调算法,使用概率有限状态机协调机器人以避免拥堵。开发了一套群体机器人实验系统与实验平台,使用自主研发的群体机器人对算法进行验证分析。结果表明,该算法能使群体机器人实现更高效、更平滑的导航,算法具有可靠性和实用价值,为应用于实际场景、解决拥堵问题提供了参考依据。

基于群体机器人多目标的区块链安全控制架构及算法

针对群体机器人在执行任务过程中可能出现的数据泄露等安全问题,提出了一种基于群体机器人多目标的区块链安全控制架构方案,并设计了用于数据安全防护的安全流程控制算法。首先,构建的架构基于区块链,从任务层和执行层角度避免了任务数据的丢失和泄露,确保群机器人的内部数据可以安全稳定地传输。其次,设计安全控制算法,实现群体机器人在多目标情况下的安全控制。最后仿真结果表明,所设计的架构及算法提高了机器人数据传输的隐私性和安全性,引入所提出的安全控制架构及算法后,群机器人在协同跟踪目标点运动的过程中探测误差减小了40.7%。同时,通过实验验证了所提架构在实际系统中的有效性。