| On 2022-06-07 at 15:00:00 (Brussels Time) |
Abstract
Random walks represent fundamental search strategies for both animals and robots, especially when there are no environmental cues that can drive motion or when the cognitive abilities of the searching agent do not support complex localization and mapping behaviors. However, there has been limited account for the correct parameterization in different search scenarios, and the relationship between search efficiency and information transfer within the swarm has been often overlooked. In the first study, we analyze the efficiency of random walk patterns for a swarm of Kilobots searching a static target in two different environmental conditions entailing a bounded or open space. We study the search efficiency and the ability to spread information within the swarm through numerical simulations and real robot experiments. Later we leverage two of those patterns for coordinating robot teams to solve collaborative tasks. We propose a probabilistic approach to ensure that tasks are executed at the maximum possible rate via opportunistic team formation. We consider the case of strictly-collaborative tasks of two types—easy and hard—each requiring a specific number of agents to concurrently work in the same area concurrently. We deploy adaptive behavioral strategies that can improve task execution by (i) changing the random movements of robots to bias their distribution towards areas where hard tasks are present, and (ii) specializing the robots’ behavior to facilitate the formation of teams tailored to the one or the other task type. Short Bio of the Speaker
Luigi Feola is a third-year Ph.D. student at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” and at the Institute of Cognitive Science and Technologies of the National Research Council under the supervision of Vito Trianni. He got his master's degree in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” with the thesis: “Informative map reconstruction using small UAV for Precision Agriculture”. From then on, his interests include Precision Agriculture and Swarm Robotics. He is currently doing a six-month internship at the IRIDIA, Université libre de Bruxelles.
Link to Seminar:
https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3aYDVRTvS5v-FcnsTJisONwlDTQrEw-hclXJrmwzVxbkg1%40thread.tacv2/1653037955281?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%2230a5145e-75bd-4212-bb02-8ff9c0ea4ae9%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22dcfe88e1-1c78-4028-8f17-6357145735b2%22%7d
