Line and V-Shape Formation Based Distributed Processing for Robotic Swarms

• Main Authors: Jian Yang, Xin Wang, Peter Bauer
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2018-08-01
• Series: Sensors
• Subjects: swarm robotics; sensor networks; pattern formation; distributed processing; collaborative exploration
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/18/8/2543

Efficient distributed processing is vital for collaborative searching tasks of robotic swarm systems. Typically, those systems are decentralized, and the members have only limited communication and processing capacities. What is illustrated in this paper is a distributed processing paradigm for robotic swarms moving in a line or v-shape formation. The introduced concept is capable of exploits the line and v-shape formations for 2-D filtering and processing algorithms based on a modified multi-dimensional Roesser model. The communication is only between nearest adjacent members with a simple state variable. As an example, we applied a salient region detection algorithm to the proposed framework. The simulation results indicate the designed paradigm can detect salient regions by using a moving line or v-shape formation in a scanning way. The requirement of communication and processing capability in this framework is minimal, making it a good candidate for collaborative exploration of formatted robotic swarms.