A serialization algorithm for mobile robots using mobile agents with distributed ant colony clustering

Abstract

This paper presents effective extensions of our previously proposed algorithm for controlling multiple robots. The robots are connected by communication networks, and the controlling algorithm is based on a specific Ant Colony Clustering (ACC) algorithm. In traditional ACC, imaginary ants convey imaginary objects for classifying them based on some similarities, but in our algorithm, we implemented the ants as actual mobile software agents that control the mobile robots which are corresponding to objects. The ant agent as a software agent guides the mobile robot (object) to which direction it should move. In the previous approach, we implemented not only the ant but also the pheromone as mobile software agents to assemble the mobile robots with as little energy consumption as possible. In our new approach, we take advantage of the pheromone agents not only to assemble the robots but also to serialize them. The serializing property is desirable for particular applications such as gathering carts in airports. We achieve the property by allowing each ant agent to alternatively receive a pheromone agent. We have built a simulator based on our algorithm, and conducted numerical experiments to demonstrate the feasibility of our approach. The experimental results show the effectiveness of our algorithm. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.