Evolving communicating controllers for multiple mobile robot systems

Abstract

Multiple mobile robot systems working together to achieve a task have many advantages over single robot systems. However, the planning and execution of a task which is to be undertaken by multiple robots is extremely difficult. To date no tools exist which allow such systems to be engineered. One of the key questions that arises when developing such systems is: does communication between the robots aid the completion of the task, and if so what information should be communicated? This paper presents the results of an investigation undertaken to address the above question. The approach adopted is to utilize genetic programming (GP) with the aim of evolving a controller, and letting the evolution process determine what information should be communicated and how best to use this information. A number of experiments were performed with the aim of determining the communication requirements. The results of these experiments are presented in this paper. It is shown that the GP system evolved controllers whose performance benefitted as a result of the communication process.