Property-driven design for swarm robotics

Manuele Brambilla, Carlo Pinciroli, Mauro Birattari, and Marco Dorigo
October 2011


This page contains all supplementary information that was not possible to included in the paper.

Table of Contents
  1. Paper Abstract
  2. Simulation Videos
  3. Real Robots Videos
  4. Download the Videos

Paper Abstract

In this paper, we propose a novel top-down design method for the development of collective behaviors of swarm robotics systems called property-driven design. Swarm robotics systems are usually designed and developed using a code-and-fix approach, that is, the developer devises, tests and modify the individual robot behaviors until a desired collective behavior is obtained. The code-and-fix approach can be very time consuming and relies completely on the ingenuity and expertise of the designer. The idea of property-driven design is that a swarm robotics system can be described by specifying formally a set of desired properties. In an iterative process similar to test-driven development, the developer produces a model of the system that satisfies the desired properties. Subsequently, the system is implemented in simulation and using real robots. Property-driven design can help to reduce the design and development time. Moreover, this approach to minimize the risk of developing a system that does not satisfy the required properties, and to promote the reuse of hardware-independent models. In this paper, we start by giving a general description of the method. We then present a possible way to apply it by using Discrete Time Markov Chains (DTMC) and Probabilistic Computation Tree Logic* (PCTL*). Finally, we conclude by presenting the application of the proposed method to the design and development of a swarm robotics system performing aggregation.


Keywords: Swarm robotics, Swarm engineering, Top-down design, Aggregation



Simulation Videos

All the simulated experiments have been performed using the ARGoS simulator. All videos are in real time.



Simulated video with 10 robots


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Simulated video with 20 robots

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Simulated video with 50 robots

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Real Robots Videos

The real robots experiments have been performed using the e-puck robot. All videos are in real time.



Video of an experiment with 10 e-pucks

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Download the Videos

Simulation video with 10 robots.

Simulation video with 20 robots.

Simulation video with 50 robots.

Real robots video with 10 e-pucks.