Implementation of an ultra-low complexity vex robotic swarm

T paper introduces the results of implementing a medium size vehicle swarm of ultra-low complexity vehicles using the VEX robotic platform. The general goal of this swarm platform is autonomous navigation and sensing based on simple local interaction rules between agents which in turn gives rise to emergent behavior. One particular application focus is the detection of CBM contaminants in air, ground or water. The navigation algorithm of each (reactive) agent is extremely simple, and is based on previous work reported in [1][2]. (This simplicity allows to construct large swarms without encountering bottlenecks due to scalability limitations, complexity and cost explosions.) This previous work was solely based on simulations of the fundamental principles, which utilize potential fields generated by stationary and mobile radio beacons. (Attractive radio beacons are used to force agents to converge to areas of interest and control convergence towards nav-points or swarm leaders, while repellive beacons are used to perform obstacle avoidance and control swarm density.) It was shown that under ideal simulation conditions, these ultra low complexity agents were capable of solving a multitude of sensing and tracking tasks very efficiently. The method was found to be especially suitable for airborne and sea based platforms.