Robotics (Jul 2013)

Hormone-Inspired Behaviour Switching for the Control of Collective Robotic Organisms

  • Ivan Tanev,
  • Tüze Kuyucu,
  • Katsunori Shimohara

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/robotics2030165
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 2, no. 3
pp. 165 – 184

Abstract

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Swarming and modular robotic locomotion are two disconnected behaviours that a group of small homogeneous robots can be used to achieve. The use of these two behaviours is a popular subject in robotics research involving search, rescue and exploration. However, they are rarely addressed as two behaviours that can coexist within a single robotic system. Here, we present a bio-inspired decision mechanism, which provides a convenient way for evolution to configure the conditions and timing of behaving as a swarm or a modular robot in an exploration scenario. The decision mechanism switches among two behaviours that are previously developed (a pheromone-based swarm control and a sinusoidal rectilinear modular robot movement). We use Genetic Programming (GP) to evolve the controller for these decisions, which acts without a centralized mechanism and with limited inter-robot communication. The results show that the proposed bio-inspired decision mechanism provides an evolvable medium for the GP to utilize in evolving an effective decision-making mechanism.

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