They also readily support ad-hoc changes in population, connectivity and local constraints. The real-world ARPAnet was conceived as protection against the Star Wars scenario. The success of its subsequent development into the Internet is evidence of the power of these ideas. For these reasons we are developing the abilities of robot teams using only local interaction and no centralized control. In this work we are concerned with teams of autonomous robots performing an ant-like transportation task in the relatively confined space of an office building.
Ants form supply columns to relocate valuable items through complex, dynamic environments.
Their remarkable effectiveness is due to a highly robust strategy of local interactions among a large number of autonomous agents. This task was chosen because robot supply columns could find almost immediate application in hazardous and tedious environments. Instead of directly modifying their physical environment like ants, or performing an information-transmitting dance like bees, our robots communicate localization space landmarks over a wireless network. This communication requires very little bandwidth and is well within the capabilities of current networks. The system was found to be robust with respect to significant localization error, and works on our real robots using odometric localization for long periods until defeated by odometric drift.