Evolutionary Swarm Robotics: Evolving Self-Organising Behaviours in Groups of Autonomous Robots

by Vito Trianni

Overview

In this book the use of ER techniques for the design of self-organising group behaviours, for both simulated and real robots is introduced. This research has a twofold value. From an engineering perspective, an automatic methodology for synthesising complex behaviours in a robotic system is described.

ER techniques should be used in order to obtain robust and efficient group behaviours based on self-organisation. From a more theoretical point of view, the second important contribution brought forth by the author's experiments concerns the understanding of the basic principles underlying self-organising behaviours and collective intelligence. In this experimental work, the evolved behaviours are analysed in order to uncover the mechanisms that have led to a certain organisation.

In summary, this book tries to mediate between two apparently opposed perspectives: engineering and cognitive science. The experiments presented and the results obtained contribute to the assessment of ER not only as a design tool, but also as a methodology for modelling and understanding intelligent adaptive behaviours.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783540776116
Publisher:	Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Publication date:	05/29/2008
Series:	Studies in Computational Intelligence , #108
Edition description:	2008
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.70(d)

Table of Contents

The Evolution of Self-Organization.- Embodied Cognitive Science.- Multi-Robot Systems, Swarm Robotics and Self-Organisation.- Evolutionary Robotics for Self-Organising Behaviours.- Experiments with Simulated and Real Robots.- A Self-Organising Artefact: The Swarm-bot.- Coordinated Motion.- Hole Avoidance.- Self-Organising Synchronisation.- Future Directions.- Emergent Collective Decisions through Self-Organisation.- Decision-Making Mechanisms through the Perception of Time.- From Solitary to Collective Behaviours: Decision Making and Cooperation.- Conclusions.

Editorial Reviews

From the reviews:

“This book is aimed at engineering and cognitive science researchers interested in evolutionary robotics techniques for the design of self-organizing group behaviors.” (IEEE Control Systems Magazine, Vol. 30, June, 2010)

From the Publisher