Graph exploration with robot swarms

Abstract

Purpose

A simultaneous solution to the localization and mapping problem of a graph‐like environment by a swarm of robots requires solutions to task coordination and map merging. The purpose of this paper is to examine the performance of two different map‐merging strategies.

Design/methodology/approach

Building a representation of the environment is a key problem in robotics where the problem is known as simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM). When large groups of robots operate within the environment, the SLAM problem becomes complicated by issues related to coordination of the elements of the swarm and integration of the environmental representations obtained by individual swarm elements. This paper considers these issues within the formalism of a group of simulated robots operating within a graph‐like environment. Starting at a common node, the swarm partitions the unknown edges of the known graph and explores the graph for a pre‐arranged period. The swarm elements then meet at a particular time and location to integrate their partial world models. This process is repeated until the entire world has been mapped. A correctness proof of the algorithm is presented, and different coordination strategies are compared via simulation.

Findings

The paper demonstrates that a swarm of identical robots, each equipped with its own marker, and capable of simple sensing and action abilities, can explore and map an unknown graph‐like environment. Moreover, experimental results show that exploration with multiple robots can provide an improvement in exploration effort over a single robot and that this improvement does not scale linearly with the size of the swarm.

Research limitations/implications

The paper represents efforts toward exploration and mapping in a graph‐like world with robot swarms. The paper suggests several extensions and variations including the development of adaptive partitioning and rendezvous schedule strategies to further improve both overall swarm efficiency and individual robot utilization during exploration.

Originality/value

The novelty associated with this paper is the formal extension of the single robot graph‐like exploration of Dudek et al. to robot swarms. The paper here examines fundamental limits to multiple robot SLAM and does this within a topological framework. Results obtained within this topological formalism can be readily transferred to the more traditional metric representation.

Citation

Wang, H., Jenkin, M. and Dymond, P. (2009), "Graph exploration with robot swarms", International Journal of Intelligent Computing and Cybernetics, Vol. 2 No. 4, pp. 818-845. https://doi.org/10.1108/17563780911005881