Designing Robot Swarms

This project looks at the challenges involved in modeling, understanding and designing of robot swarms and multi-robot systems.

Multi-robot engineering is difficult, as it often requires a "bottom-up" approach to behavioural design. The emergent macro behaviour of the collective is specified and evaluated, but it is the micro behaviour of individual robots that needs to be programmed. Furthermore, the relationship between these two levels is often somewhat opaque.

Research outputs

• Information-Cost-Reward (ICR) framework for collective behaviour analysis
• Design Pattern Catalogue for robot swarm foraging algorithms
• Behaviour-Data-Relations Modeling Language (BDRML) for multi-agent systems

Publications

Journal papers

Pitonakova, L., Crowder, R. & Bullock, S. (2018). Information exchange design patterns for robot swarm foraging and their application in robot control algorithms. Frontiers in Robotics and AI, DOI: 10.3389/frobt.2018.00047

Publication: Pitonakova, L., Crowder, R. & Bullock, S. (2018). The Information-Cost-Reward framework for understanding robot swarm foraging. Swarm Intelligence, 12(1), 71-96.

Pitonakova, L., Crowder, R. & Bullock, S. (2016). Information flow principles for plasticity in foraging robot swarms. Swarm Intelligence, 10(1), 33–63.

Conference papers (peer reviewed)

Pitonakova, L., Winfield, A. F. T. & Crowder, R. (2018). Recruitment near worksites facilitates the robustness of foraging e-puck swarms to global positioning noise. Proceedings of the 2018 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2018), IEEE.

Pitonakova, L., Crowder, R. & Bullock, S. (2018). The Importance of Information Flow Regulation in Preferentially Foraging Robot Swarms. Proceedings of the Eleventh International Conference on Swarm Intelligence (ANTS 2018), Springer, 277-289.

Pitonakova, L., Crowder, R. & Bullock, S. (2017). Behaviour-Data Relations Modelling Language For Multi-Robot Control Algorithms. Proceedings of the 2017 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2017), IEEE, 727-732.

Pitonakova, L., Crowder R. & Bullock, S. (2016). Task allocation in foraging robot swarms: The Role of Information Sharing. In Gershenson, C. et al. (eds.), Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems (ALIFE XV), MIT Press, 306-313.

Pitonakova, L., Crowder R. & Bullock, S. (2014). Understanding the role of recruitment in collective robot foraging. In Lipson, H. et al. (eds.), The Fourteenth International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems (ALIFE 14), MIT Press, 264-271.

Other

Pitonakova, L. (2017) Design Patterns for Robot Swarms. PhD thesis.

Selected talks and posters

2019: Modeling Multi-Agent Systems with Sketch BDRML: Invited talk, Swarm lunch, University of Bristol, Brustol, United Kingdom

2018: Designing Robot Swarms: A project overview: Invited talk at the University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom

2017: Behaviour-Data Relations Modelling Language For Multi-Robot Control Algorithms: The International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2017), Vancouver, Canada

2017: Designing Robot Swarms: A public lecture at the Southwest Futurists, Bristol.

2015: Design Patterns for Swarms of Robot Foragers: The International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2015), Hamburg, Germany

2015: Towards Design Patterns for Robot Swarms: Invited talk at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, Bristol, United Kingdom

2014: Understanding the Role of Recruitment in Collective Robot Foraging: The Fourteenth International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems (ALIFE 14)

2014: Understanding the Role of Recruitment in Collective Robot Foraging: Annual Complex Systems DTC meeting, University of Southampton

2013: Information Exchange and Coordination in Robot Swarms: Annual Agents, Interaction and Complexity meeting, University of Southampton

Essays

2013: Foraging Strategies in Nature and Their Application to Swarm Robotics

2010: Does Communication Make a Difference?