Self-Organised Collision-Free Flocking Mechanism in Heterogeneous Robot Swarms

Zhe Ban, Junyan Hu, Barry Lennox, Farshad Arvin

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

31 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Flocking is a social animals’ common behaviour observed in nature. It has a great potential for real-world applications such as exploration in agri-robotics using low-cost robotic solutions. In this paper, an extended model of a self-organised flocking mechanism using heterogeneous swarm system is proposed. The proposed model for swarm robotic systems is a combination of a collective motion mechanism with obstacle avoidance functions, which ensures a collision-free flocking trajectory for the followers. An optimal control model for the leader is also developed to steer the swarm to a desired goal location. Compared to the conventional methods, by using the proposed model, the swarm network has less requirement for power and storage. The feasibility of the proposed self-organised flocking algorithm is validated by realistic robotic simulation software.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2461-2471
Number of pages11
JournalMobile Networks and Applications
Volume26
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2021

Keywords

  • Collective behaviour
  • Flocking
  • Obstacle avoidance
  • Self-organised
  • Swarm robotics

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Self-Organised Collision-Free Flocking Mechanism in Heterogeneous Robot Swarms'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this