Bioinspired Visuomotor Feedback in a Multiagent Group/Swarm Context

Abstract

Practical aerial swarm applications are limited by the need to provide fast, robust feedback. To consider how biological agents incorporate visual feedback in multiagent environments, this study extends a well-developed model of bioinspired visual feedback for individual agent to feedback in multiagent dynamic environments. A multiagent visual model is developed and analyzed for an individual agent operating in a group of other agents. The theoretical model indicates a stable equilibrium trajectory within the neighboring agents. When a minority of agents conducting bioinspired visual feedback are introduced into a planar swarm simulation, results show robustness of agents to perturbations from reference condition. The bioinspired feedback rule is implemented experimentally using ground microbots for two cases identified by a theoretical observability condition. The experimental performance of the single agent in an established swarm is consistent with the theoretical stability and observability predictions. The results indicate insect visuomotor response can help participate in established swarms, and indicate the importance of optic flow input in maintaining group motion.