Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Self-organized Task Allocation in a Swarm of E-puck Robots

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Proceedings of 2017 Chinese Intelligent Automation Conference (CIAC 2017)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering ((LNEE,volume 458))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

This paper investigates the self-organized task allocation behaviors in swarm systems by means of evolutionary game theory. A group of E-puck robots are employed to study the potential factors influencing the strategy choices of tasks that require different costs. Endowing the cooperation and defection strategy to robots, we find possible approaches to promote cooperation among selfish robots without explicit communication or cooperation mechanisms. Irrespective of the global information and centralized control, the proposed method is related with the strategy evolution adopted by the robots performing the tasks. Results are presented for a system of physical robots capable of moving and collectively form a specified spatial pattern. The contribution is that evolutionary game theory offers a new approach to environment-specific task modelling in collective robots.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 259.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 329.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 329.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Agassounon W, Martinoli A, Goodman R (2001) A scalable, distributed algorithm for allocating workers in embedded systems. IEEE international conference on systems 5(2):3367–3373

    Google Scholar 

  2. Brutschy A, Pini G, Pinciroli C, Birattari M, Dorigo M (2014) Self-organized task allocation to sequentially interdependent tasks in swarm robotics. Auton Agent Multi-Agent Syst 28(1):101–125

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Campo A, Dorigo, M (2007) Efficient multi-foraging in swarm robotics. European conference on advances in artificial life, vol 4648 LNAI. Springer, Berlin, pp 696–705

    Google Scholar 

  4. Duarte A, Weissing FJ, Pen I, Keller L (2011) An evolutionary perspective on self-organized division of labor in social insects. Annu Rev Ecol Evol Syst 42(1):91–110

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Gerdes J, Becker MHG, Key G, Cattoretti G, Sanders HW, Smith AG et al (1992) Letters to the editor. J Pathol 168(1):85–87

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Karsai I, Wenzel JW (1998) Productivity, individual-level and colony-level flexibility, and organization of work as consequences of colony size. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 95(15):8665–8669

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Kreiger M, Billeter J (2000) The call of duty: self-organized task allocation in a population of up to twelve mobile robots. Robot Auton Syst 30(1):65–84

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Wilson EO (1978) Caste and ecology in the social insects. Monogr Popul Biol 12(3):1

    Google Scholar 

  9. Robinson GE (1992) Regulation of division of labor in insect societies. Annu Rev Entomol 37(1):637

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  10. Seeley TD (1989) The honey bee colony as a superorganism. Am Sci 77(6):546–553

    Google Scholar 

  11. Sendova-Franks A, Franks NR (1993) Task allocation in ant colonies within variable environments (a study of temporal polyethism: experimental). Bull Math Biol 55(1):75–96

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Stewart AJ, Plotkin JB (2016) Small groups and long memories promote cooperation. Sci Rep 6(s 1–3): 26889

    Google Scholar 

  13. Stivala A, Kashima Y, Kirley M (2016) Culture and cooperation in a spatial public goods game. Phys Rev E 94(3–1):032303

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Van den Berg P, Molleman L, Weissing FJ (2015) Focus on the success of others leads to selfish behavior. Proc Nat Acad Sci U S A 112(9):2912–2917

    Google Scholar 

  15. Xu Z, Zhang J, Zhang C, Chen Z (2016) Fixation of strategies driven by switching probabilities in evolutionary games. Europhys Lett 116(5):58002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Zhang J, Chen Z (2016) Contact-based model for strategy updating and evolution of cooperation. Physa D Nonlinear Phenom 323–324(2):27–34

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  17. Zhang J, Zhang C, Cao M, Weissing FJ (2015) Crucial role of strategy updating for coexistence of strategies in interaction networks. Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys 91(4):042101

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Automation, College of Computer and Control Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin, China

    Qiaoyu Li, Xiaolong Yang, Yuying Zhu & Jianlei Zhang

Authors
  1. Qiaoyu Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Xiaolong Yang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Yuying Zhu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Jianlei Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jianlei Zhang .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

    Zhidong Deng

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

About this paper

Cite this paper

Li, Q., Yang, X., Zhu, Y., Zhang, J. (2018). Self-organized Task Allocation in a Swarm of E-puck Robots. In: Deng, Z. (eds) Proceedings of 2017 Chinese Intelligent Automation Conference. CIAC 2017. Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering, vol 458. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6445-6_17

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6445-6_17

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-10-6444-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-10-6445-6

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation