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arXiv · 1804.04202

Controlling Swarms: A Programming Paradigm with Minimalistic Communication

Joshua Cherian Varughese·Hannes Hornischer·Ronald Thenius·Payam Zahadat·Franz Wotawa·Thomas Schmickl
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Abstract

Inspired by natural swarms, numerous control schemes enabling robotic swarms, mobile sensor networks and other multi-agent systems to exhibit various self-organized behaviors have been suggested. In this work, we present a Wave Oriented Swarm Programming Paradigm (WOSPP) enabling the control of swarms with minimalistic communication bandwidth in a simple manner, yet allowing the emergence of diverse complex behaviors and autonomy of the swarm. Communi cation in the proposed paradigm is based on "ping"-signals inspired by strategies for communication and self organization of slime mold (dictyostelium discoideum) and fireflies (lampyridae). Signals propagate as information-waves throughout the swarm. We show that even with 1-bit bandwidth communication between agents suffices for the design of a substantial set of behaviors in the domain of essential behaviors of a collective. Ultimately, the reader will be enabled to develop and design a control scheme for individual swarms.

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Joshua Cherian Varughese, Hannes Hornischer, Ronald Thenius, Payam Zahadat, Franz Wotawa, Thomas Schmickl. 2018-04-11. Controlling Swarms: A Programming Paradigm with Minimalistic Communication. https://arxiv.org/abs/1804.04202

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