Collective Robotics Simulation

Abstract

In section 2.5, our specific class of MASs has been introduced. We have also described a generic model belonging to this class (section 2.5.1) and presented a peculiar application of this model (section 2.5.2). In this chapter, the design and the implementation of this application with ECM/STL++ is presented. Figure 8.12, at the end of this chapter, summarizes the whole process from the model to the implementation.

In the Environment, which is a torus grid, every cell has four neighbors. By applying a four connectivity, the implementation is facilitated, and this does not fundamentally vary the functionality from a more complex scheme such as an eight connectivity. The agents that roam on this environment are named SimRobots, because they simulate the robots. They comply the agent model introduced in figure 2.6 of section 2.5: the agents sense the environment through their sensors and act upon their perception at once.

To take advantage of distributed systems, the Environment is split into N sub-environments, each being encapsulated in a blop, as depicted in figure 8.1, thus providing an independent functioning between sub-environments (and hence between agents roaming in different sub-environments). Note that blops have to be arranged so as to preserve the topology of the sub-environments they implement.