Investigating the impact of initial parameters on autonomous robot swarm movement strategies for enhanced exploration efficiency: a comprehensive study

Abstract

Swarm robots are frequently preferred for the exploration of harsh environments and search and rescue operations. This study explores the factors that influence the movement strategies of autonomous robot swarms and their impact on swarm distribution in the field, employing simulation-based analysis. The research consists of two parts: initially, robots undergo free-fall as passive entities, followed by a phase where they employ predefined movement strategies from their fall positions. The study aims to investigate how the initial position and related parameters affect movement characteristics and the ultimate swarm distribution. To achieve this objective, four parameters-radius, height, mass, and the Coefficient of Restitution-were identified, each assigned three different values. The study observes the effects of these parameters on robot motion, considering motion strategies such as Random Walk, Levy Walk, Markov Process, and Brownian Motion. Results indicate that increasing parameter values induce changes in the position values of the free-falling swarm in the first part, which is the initial position for the second part, influencing movement strategies in diverse ways. The outcomes are analyzed concerning the radial and angular spread of the robots. Radial spread measures how far swarm elements spread from their initial positions, while angular spread indicates how homogeneously the robots are distributed according to the polar angle. The study comprehensively investigates how the movement strategies of autonomous robot swarms are impacted by parameters and how these effects manifest in the results. The findings are anticipated to enhance the effective utilization of autonomous robot swarms in exploration missions.