Simulating Self-Organization for Multi-Robot Systems

Wei-Min Shen, C.-M. Chuong, and Peter Will. Simulating Self-Organization for Multi-Robot Systems. In Proc. 2002 IEEE/RSJ Intl. Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems, pp. 2776–2781, Switzerland, 2002.

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Abstract

How do multiple robots self-organize into global patterns based on local communications and interactions? This paper describes a theoretical and simulation model called “Digital Hormone Model” (DHM) for such a self-organization task. The model is inspired by two facts: complex biological patterns are results of self-organization of homogenous cells regulated by hormone-like chemical signals, and distributed controls can enable self-reconfigurable robots to performance locomotion and reconfiguration. The DHM is an integration and generalization of reaction-diffusion model and stochastic cellular automata. The movements of robots (or cells) in DHM are computed not by the Turing's differential equations, nor the Metropolis rule, but by stochastic rules that are based on the concentration of hormones in the neighboring space. Experimental results have shown that this model can produce results that match and predict the actual findings in the biological experiments of feather bud formation among uniform skin cells. Furthermore, an extension of this model may be directly applicable to self-organization in multirobot systems using simulated hormone-like signals.

BibTeX Entry

@InProceedings{	  shen2002simulating-self-organization-for-multi-robot-systems,
  abstract	= {How do multiple robots self-organize into global patterns
		  based on local communications and interactions? This paper
		  describes a theoretical and simulation model called
		  ``Digital Hormone Model'' (DHM) for such a
		  self-organization task. The model is inspired by two facts:
		  complex biological patterns are results of
		  self-organization of homogenous cells regulated by
		  hormone-like chemical signals, and distributed controls can
		  enable self-reconfigurable robots to performance locomotion
		  and reconfiguration. The DHM is an integration and
		  generalization of reaction-diffusion model and stochastic
		  cellular automata. The movements of robots (or cells) in
		  DHM are computed not by the Turing's differential
		  equations, nor the Metropolis rule, but by stochastic rules
		  that are based on the concentration of hormones in the
		  neighboring space. Experimental results have shown that
		  this model can produce results that match and predict the
		  actual findings in the biological experiments of feather
		  bud formation among uniform skin cells. Furthermore, an
		  extension of this model may be directly applicable to
		  self-organization in multirobot systems using simulated
		  hormone-like signals. },
  address	= {Switzerland},
  author	= {Wei-Min Shen and C.-M. Chuong and Peter Will},
  booktitle	= iros-02,
  pages		= {2776--2781},
  title		= {Simulating Self-Organization for Multi-Robot Systems},
  year		= {2002}
}