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Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems pp 371–383Cite as

Landmark-Guided Shape Formation by a Swarm of Robots

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Part of the book series: Springer Proceedings in Advanced Robotics ((SPAR,volume 9))

Abstract

We consider the problem of robots forming two-dimensional shapes in the plane by moving objects inward toward a set of landmarks. These landmarks serve as the user’s specification of the desired shape. Potential applications include cleaning, construction and entertainment. We are inspired by work in swarm robotics where relatively simple robots gather objects into a cluster. In our case, the robots and algorithm are admittedly more complex, yet we gain the ability to shape that cluster of objects into a more useful form. One of our main goals is to facilitate an orderly flow of robot motion around the constructed shape, such that interference between robots is reduced. We present results using an accurate simulation of our laboratory environment, as well as one run executed on a physical robot which helps to validate results from the simulation.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The Zumo 32U4 robot is a small (\(\approx \)10 \(\times \) 10 cm) robot made by Pololu corporation.

  2. 2.

    The Up board is a small single-board computer powered by an Intel x5-Z8350 1.44 GHz processor. See http://www.up-board.org/up/.

  3. 3.

    Adaptive Monte Carlo Localization (AMCL). See http://wiki.ros.org/amcl.

  4. 4.

    https://github.com/avidbots/flatland.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science/Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, NL, Canada

    Andrew Vardy

Authors
  1. Andrew Vardy
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Correspondence to Andrew Vardy .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA

    Nikolaus Correll

  2. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Mac Schwager

  3. Department of Aerospace Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Michael Otte

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Vardy, A. (2019). Landmark-Guided Shape Formation by a Swarm of Robots. In: Correll, N., Schwager, M., Otte, M. (eds) Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems. Springer Proceedings in Advanced Robotics, vol 9. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05816-6_26

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