A Bio-Inspired Approach to Task Assignment of Swarm Robots in 3-D Dynamic Environments

• Published in: IEEE transactions on cybernetics Vol. 47; no. 4; pp. 974 - 983
• Main Authors: Xin Yi, Anmin Zhu, Yang, Simon X., Chaomin Luo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States IEEE 01.04.2017; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: 3-D environments; Algorithms; bio-inspired approach; Biomimetics; Computer simulation; Heuristic algorithms; Multi-robot systems; Path planning; Robot control; Robot kinematics; Robot sensing systems; Robots; Self organizing maps; swarm robots; task assignment; Vehicle dynamics
• ISSN: 2168-2267; 2168-2275
• DOI: 10.1109/TCYB.2016.2535153

Intending to mimic the operating mechanism of biological neural systems, a self organizing map-based approach to task assignment of a swarm of robots in 3-D dynamic environments is proposed in this paper. This approach integrates the advantages and characteristics of biological neural systems. It is capable of dynamically planning the paths of a swarm of robots in 3-D environments under uncertain situations, such as when some robots are presented in or broken down or when more than one robot is needed for some special task locations. A Bezier path optimizing algorithm and a parameter adjusting algorithm are integrated in this paper. It is capable of reducing the complexity of the robot navigation control and limiting the number of convergence iterations. The simulation results with different environments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.