Swarm Intelligence for the Control of a Group of Robots

This paper investigates the science of sensory and sensorimotor systems that enable navigation and natural flight in insects with application to the collaborative control of robots. The authors discuss fundamental research being conducted at the Autonomous Vehicle Systems Lab located at the University of the Incarnate Word on developing biologically inspired robots that emulate insect foraging and search behavior. Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) technique is used in order to analyze the social characteristics of the studied insects and to implement those in the design of multi-robot systems. The authors will also present novel approaches for integrating the studied collective behavioral techniques for the collaborative and formation control of autonomous vehicles.