Application of Swarm Robotic System in a Dynamic Environment using Cohort Intelligence

Abstract

The nature inspired Swarm Intelligence has laid the foundation for many eclectic applications. This work considers a solution to one such application of Search and Rescue operation, based on Cohort Intelligence (CI) methodology which aims at modelling the behaviour of candidates based on the interaction amongst each other to achieve a common goal. Every candidate improves its own behaviour by observing all other candidates in the cohort. This method results in the refinement of the performance of the entire system. The research done so far in this application using CI is associated with robots deployed in a static alien establishment. However, this assumption is not suitable in real-life scenarios. In this paper, the obstacle avoidance and path planning of a swarm of robots was implemented while considering a dynamic alien establishment. The problem of robots occasionally getting stuck in the non-convex obstacles has also been solved using a perturbation technique. The following test cases were implemented - No Obstacle Case (NOC), Stationary Obstacles Case (SOC), Single Dynamic Obstacle Case (SDOC), Multiple Dynamic Obstacles Case with Same Velocity (MDOC-SV) and Multiple Dynamic Obstacles Case with Different Velocities (MDOC-DV).