Chain formations

Abstract

One important task in cooperative robotics is the self-organization of robotic chain formations in unknown environments. Surveillance and reconnaissance in sewers, ducts, tunnels and caves are some of the applications for this type of formation. In this chapter we present our algorithm that successfully leads to the creation of distributed, self-emerging, robust and scalable chain formations. This algorithm assumes that robots are dependent and is physics-based, using a surprisingly simple and elegant modification to standard physicomimetics. We then describe the various simulation experiments that were performed to test this algorithm. A graphical tool is presented next, together with both a modified data communication protocol and an algorithm that distributively constructs a chain formation list whose nodes are the exploring robots. Combining all these with our Maxelbots robot platforms leads to real-time map generation of the explored environment. The experiments with the Maxelbots described at the end of this chapter confirm the simulation results and highlight the number of real-world applications for which this algorithm can be used.