Correll, Nikolaus ; Martinoli, Alcherio

Presented at: Int. Symp. on Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems (DARS), Toulouse, France, June 23-25.

In: Proc. of the 7th Int. Symp. on Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems (DARS), 2004, 2006, p. 369-378

Date: 2006

Series: Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems, Springer Verlag, vol. 6

We present a simple, behavior-based, distributed control algorithm to inspect a regular structure with a swarm of autonomous, miniature robots, using only on-board, local sensors. To estimate intrinsic advantages and limita- tions of the proposed control solution, we capture its characteristics at a higher abstraction level using non-spatial probabilistic microscopic and macroscopic models. Both models achieve consistent prediction on the chosen swarm metric and deliver a series of interesting qualitative and quantitative insights on further, counterintuitive, improvement of the distributed control algorithm. Modeling results were validated by experiments with one to twenty robots using a realistic simulator in the framework of a case study concerned with the inspection of a jet turbine.

Keyword(s): Distributed Autonomous Robots, Swarm Intelligence, Collective Inspection, Robotic Coverage, Miniature Robots

Reference: SWIS-CONF-2004-003

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