amacroscopicanalyticalmodelofcollaborationin.pdfVIP

A Macroscopic Analytical Model of Collaboration in Distributed Robotic Systems Kristina Lerman lerman@ Information Sciences Institute University of Southern California Marina del Rey, CA 90292 Aram Galstyan galstyan@ Information Sciences Institute University of Southern California Marina del Rey, CA 90292 Alcherio Martinoli alcherio@ Collective Robotics Group California Institute of Technology Pasadena, CA 91125 Auke Jan Ijspeert ijspeert@ Department of Computer Science University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA 90089 Abstract In this paper, we present a macroscopic analytical model of collaboration in a group of reactive robots. The model consists of a series of coupled differential equations that describe the dynamics of group behavior. After presenting the general model, we analyze in detail a case study of collaboration, the stick pulling experiment, studied experimentally and in simulation by Ijspeert et al.[14]. The robots’ task is to pull sticks out of their holes, and it can be successfully achieved only through collaboration between two robots. There is no explicit communication or coordination between the robots. Unlike microscopic simulations (sensor-based or using a probabilistic numerical model), whose computational time scales with the robot group size, the macroscopic model is computationally efficient, because its solutions are independent of robot group size. Analysis reproduces several qualitative conclusions of Ijspeert et al.: namely, the different dynamical reg