Title: Towards autonomous robot swarms for multi-target localisation and monitoring with applications to counter IED operations

Authors: Robert J. Mullen, Sarah Barman, Paolo Remagnino, Dorothy Monekosso

Addresses: Faculty of Computing, Information Systems and Mathematics, Kingston University, Penrhyn Road, Kingston-Upon-Thames, KT1 2EE, London, UK. ' Faculty of Computing, Information Systems and Mathematics, Kingston University, Penrhyn Road, Kingston-Upon-Thames, KT1 2EE, London, UK. ' Faculty of Computing, Information Systems and Mathematics, Kingston University, Penrhyn Road, Kingston-Upon-Thames, KT1 2EE, London, UK. ' School of Computing and Mathematics, Ulster University, Shore Road, Newtonabby, County Antrim, BT37 0QB, Northern Ireland

Abstract: A swarm robotics approach is adopted in designing a fully autonomous multi-robot-based solution to the problem of locating generic targets within a given search space. A proof of concept system is developed and tested within a 3D simulation environment. A series of laboratory experiments are carried out to assess the performance of the system with respect to the given task of localising and monitoring generic targets, with reference to a counter IED scenario. Further experiments are carried out to evaluate the robustness to robot failure and scalability of the system.

Keywords: swarm robotics; swarm intelligence; multi-robot systems; autonomous robots; autonomous control laws; self-organisation; distributed robotics; target localisation; target monitoring; robot formation control; counter IED operations; robot control; multiple robots; robot simulation; robot failure; system scalability; improvised explosive devices; IEDs; swarm robots.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIDSS.2011.037809

International Journal of Intelligent Defence Support Systems, 2011 Vol.4 No.1, pp.87 - 107

Published online: 28 Feb 2015 *

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