Cooperative swarm control for multiple mobile robots using only information from PSD sensors

摘要

Recently, many studies on swarm robotics have been conducted in which the aim seems to be the realization of an ability to perform complex tasks by cooperating with each other. Future progress and concrete applications are expected. The objective of this study was to construct a cooperative swarm system by using multiple mobile robots. First, multiple mobile robots with six position-sensitive detector (PSD) sensors were designed. A PSD sensor is a type of photo sensor. A control system was considered to realize swarm behavior, such as that shown by Ligia exotica, by using only information from the PSD sensors. Experimental results showed interesting behavior among the multiple mobile robots, such as following, avoidance, and schooling. The controller of the schooling mode was designed based on subsumption architecture. The proposed system was demonstrated to high school students at OPEN CAMPUS 2010, held in Tokyo University of Science, Yamaguchi.