Abstract
This paper is concerned with assuring the safety of a swarm of agents (simulated robots). Such behavioral assurance is provided with the physics method called kinetic theory. Kinetic theory formulas are used to predict the macroscopic behavior of a simulated swarm of individually controlled agents. Kinetic theory is also the method for controlling the agents. In particular, the agents behave like particles in a moving gas.
The coverage task addressed here involves a dynamic search through a bounded region, while avoiding multiple large obstacles, such as buildings. In the case of limited sensors and communication, maintaining spatial coverage – especially after passing the obstacles – is a challenging problem. Our kinetic theory solution simulates a gas-like swarm motion, which provides excellent coverage. Finally, experimental results are presented that determine how well the macroscopic-level theory, mentioned above, predicts simulated swarm behavior on this task.
An Erratum for this chapter can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-04879-1_23
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Spears, D., Kerr, W., Spears, W. (2009). Safety and Security Multi-agent Systems. In: Barley, M., Mouratidis, H., Unruh, A., Spears, D., Scerri, P., Massacci, F. (eds) Safety and Security in Multiagent Systems. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 4324. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-04879-1_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-04879-1_13
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