Dispersion and Dispatch Movement Design for a Multi-Robot Searching Team Using Communication Density
Feng‐Li Lian, You‐Ling Jian, Wei-Hao Hsu · 2008
In this chapter, a dispersion movement algorithm for multi-robot systems with simple computation and easily obtainable information is proposed. The only information needed is the communication density, i.e., the number of communication links of each individual robot. In addition, a dispatch control rule is proposed based on the dispersion algorithm. With some parameters known in advance, the base station could then estimate an appropriate time to release new robots. The dispersion and dispatch control rules are easy to implement for a practical multi-robot system to act like a natural creature system. The dispersion movement algorithm itself still executes as a natural system. And with the dispatch rule, the dispersion algorithm can be used in tasks with more variety. Simulation results of the dispersion and dispatch control rules are presented, and statistics of the coverage area, partition rate, spending time and stop rate show the advantage of these algorithms. In the future, the research will focus on the mechanism of adaptively adjusting of the dispatch control rule, and the theoretical analysis of the algorithm performance. The implementation of the algorithm on practical robots and further applications are also under planning.