Testing the limits of pheromone stigmergy in high-density robot swarms
Area coverage and collective exploration are key challenges for swarm robotics. Previous research in this field has drawn inspiration from ant colonies, with real, or more commonly virtual, pheromones deposited into a shared environment to coordinate behaviour through stigmergy. Repellent pheromones...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
The Royal Society
2019-11-01
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| Series: | Royal Society Open Science |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.190225 |
| _version_ | 1818454842558906368 |
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| author | Edmund R. Hunt Simon Jones Sabine Hauert |
| author_facet | Edmund R. Hunt Simon Jones Sabine Hauert |
| author_sort | Edmund R. Hunt |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Area coverage and collective exploration are key challenges for swarm robotics. Previous research in this field has drawn inspiration from ant colonies, with real, or more commonly virtual, pheromones deposited into a shared environment to coordinate behaviour through stigmergy. Repellent pheromones can facilitate rapid dispersal of robotic agents, yet this has been demonstrated only for relatively small swarm sizes (N < 30). Here, we report findings from swarms of real robots (Kilobots) an order of magnitude larger (N > 300) and from realistic simulation experiments up to N = 400. We identify limitations to stigmergy in a spatially constrained, high-density environment—a free but bounded two-dimensional workspace—using repellent binary pheromone. At larger N and higher densities, a simple stigmergic avoidance algorithm becomes first no better, then inferior to, the area coverage of non-interacting random walkers. Thus, the assumption of robustness and scalability for such approaches may need to be re-examined when they are working at a high density caused by ever-increasing swarm sizes. Instead, subcellular biology, and diffusive processes, may prove a better source of inspiration at large N in high agent density environments. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-14T22:01:18Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-087c769d290a4d6f88fa7e5c81826734 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2054-5703 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-14T22:01:18Z |
| publishDate | 2019-11-01 |
| publisher | The Royal Society |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Royal Society Open Science |
| spelling | doaj.art-087c769d290a4d6f88fa7e5c818267342022-12-21T22:45:59ZengThe Royal SocietyRoyal Society Open Science2054-57032019-11-0161110.1098/rsos.190225190225Testing the limits of pheromone stigmergy in high-density robot swarmsEdmund R. HuntSimon JonesSabine HauertArea coverage and collective exploration are key challenges for swarm robotics. Previous research in this field has drawn inspiration from ant colonies, with real, or more commonly virtual, pheromones deposited into a shared environment to coordinate behaviour through stigmergy. Repellent pheromones can facilitate rapid dispersal of robotic agents, yet this has been demonstrated only for relatively small swarm sizes (N < 30). Here, we report findings from swarms of real robots (Kilobots) an order of magnitude larger (N > 300) and from realistic simulation experiments up to N = 400. We identify limitations to stigmergy in a spatially constrained, high-density environment—a free but bounded two-dimensional workspace—using repellent binary pheromone. At larger N and higher densities, a simple stigmergic avoidance algorithm becomes first no better, then inferior to, the area coverage of non-interacting random walkers. Thus, the assumption of robustness and scalability for such approaches may need to be re-examined when they are working at a high density caused by ever-increasing swarm sizes. Instead, subcellular biology, and diffusive processes, may prove a better source of inspiration at large N in high agent density environments.https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.190225swarm roboticsantsstigmergypheromonediffusive processesscalability |
| spellingShingle | Edmund R. Hunt Simon Jones Sabine Hauert Testing the limits of pheromone stigmergy in high-density robot swarms Royal Society Open Science swarm robotics ants stigmergy pheromone diffusive processes scalability |
| title | Testing the limits of pheromone stigmergy in high-density robot swarms |
| title_full | Testing the limits of pheromone stigmergy in high-density robot swarms |
| title_fullStr | Testing the limits of pheromone stigmergy in high-density robot swarms |
| title_full_unstemmed | Testing the limits of pheromone stigmergy in high-density robot swarms |
| title_short | Testing the limits of pheromone stigmergy in high-density robot swarms |
| title_sort | testing the limits of pheromone stigmergy in high density robot swarms |
| topic | swarm robotics ants stigmergy pheromone diffusive processes scalability |
| url | https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.190225 |
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