1,691 research outputs found
Evolution of swarming behavior is shaped by how predators attack
Animal grouping behaviors have been widely studied due to their implications
for understanding social intelligence, collective cognition, and potential
applications in engineering, artificial intelligence, and robotics. An
important biological aspect of these studies is discerning which selection
pressures favor the evolution of grouping behavior. In the past decade,
researchers have begun using evolutionary computation to study the evolutionary
effects of these selection pressures in predator-prey models. The selfish herd
hypothesis states that concentrated groups arise because prey selfishly attempt
to place their conspecifics between themselves and the predator, thus causing
an endless cycle of movement toward the center of the group. Using an
evolutionary model of a predator-prey system, we show that how predators attack
is critical to the evolution of the selfish herd. Following this discovery, we
show that density-dependent predation provides an abstraction of Hamilton's
original formulation of ``domains of danger.'' Finally, we verify that
density-dependent predation provides a sufficient selective advantage for prey
to evolve the selfish herd in response to predation by coevolving predators.
Thus, our work corroborates Hamilton's selfish herd hypothesis in a digital
evolutionary model, refines the assumptions of the selfish herd hypothesis, and
generalizes the domain of danger concept to density-dependent predation.Comment: 25 pages, 11 figures, 5 tables, including 2 Supplementary Figures.
Version to appear in "Artificial Life
Estimating Self-Sustainability in Peer-to-Peer Swarming Systems
Peer-to-peer swarming is one of the \emph{de facto} solutions for distributed
content dissemination in today's Internet. By leveraging resources provided by
clients, swarming systems reduce the load on and costs to publishers. However,
there is a limit to how much cost savings can be gained from swarming; for
example, for unpopular content peers will always depend on the publisher in
order to complete their downloads. In this paper, we investigate this
dependence. For this purpose, we propose a new metric, namely \emph{swarm
self-sustainability}. A swarm is referred to as self-sustaining if all its
blocks are collectively held by peers; the self-sustainability of a swarm is
the fraction of time in which the swarm is self-sustaining. We pose the
following question: how does the self-sustainability of a swarm vary as a
function of content popularity, the service capacity of the users, and the size
of the file? We present a model to answer the posed question. We then propose
efficient solution methods to compute self-sustainability. The accuracy of our
estimates is validated against simulation. Finally, we also provide closed-form
expressions for the fraction of time that a given number of blocks is
collectively held by peers.Comment: 27 pages, 5 figure
Random Finite Set Theory and Optimal Control of Large Collaborative Swarms
Controlling large swarms of robotic agents has many challenges including, but
not limited to, computational complexity due to the number of agents,
uncertainty in the functionality of each agent in the swarm, and uncertainty in
the swarm's configuration. This work generalizes the swarm state using Random
Finite Set (RFS) theory and solves the control problem using Model Predictive
Control (MPC) to overcome the aforementioned challenges. Computationally
efficient solutions are obtained via the Iterative Linear Quadratic Regulator
(ILQR). Information divergence is used to define the distance between the swarm
RFS and the desired swarm configuration. Then, a stochastic optimal control
problem is formulated using a modified L2^2 distance. Simulation results using
MPC and ILQR show that swarm intensities converge to a target destination, and
the RFS control formulation can vary in the number of target destinations. ILQR
also provides a more computationally efficient solution to the RFS swarm
problem when compared to the MPC solution. Lastly, the RFS control solution is
applied to a spacecraft relative motion problem showing the viability for this
real-world scenario.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1801.0731
Robot swarming applications
This paper discusses the different modes of operation of a swarm of robots: (i) non-communicative swarming, (ii) communicative swarming, (iii) networking, (iv) olfactory-based navigation and (v) assistive swarming. I briefly present the state of the art in swarming and outline the major techniques applied for each mode of operation and discuss the related problems and expected results
Binary interaction algorithms for the simulation of flocking and swarming dynamics
Microscopic models of flocking and swarming takes in account large numbers of
interacting individ- uals. Numerical resolution of large flocks implies huge
computational costs. Typically for interacting individuals we have a cost
of . We tackle the problem numerically by considering approximated
binary interaction dynamics described by kinetic equations and simulating such
equations by suitable stochastic methods. This approach permits to compute
approximate solutions as functions of a small scaling parameter
at a reduced complexity of O(N) operations. Several numerical results show the
efficiency of the algorithms proposed
Mixed Initiative Systems for Human-Swarm Interaction: Opportunities and Challenges
Human-swarm interaction (HSI) involves a number of human factors impacting
human behaviour throughout the interaction. As the technologies used within HSI
advance, it is more tempting to increase the level of swarm autonomy within the
interaction to reduce the workload on humans. Yet, the prospective negative
effects of high levels of autonomy on human situational awareness can hinder
this process. Flexible autonomy aims at trading-off these effects by changing
the level of autonomy within the interaction when required; with
mixed-initiatives combining human preferences and automation's recommendations
to select an appropriate level of autonomy at a certain point of time. However,
the effective implementation of mixed-initiative systems raises fundamental
questions on how to combine human preferences and automation recommendations,
how to realise the selected level of autonomy, and what the future impacts on
the cognitive states of a human are. We explore open challenges that hamper the
process of developing effective flexible autonomy. We then highlight the
potential benefits of using system modelling techniques in HSI by illustrating
how they provide HSI designers with an opportunity to evaluate different
strategies for assessing the state of the mission and for adapting the level of
autonomy within the interaction to maximise mission success metrics.Comment: Author version, accepted at the 2018 IEEE Annual Systems Modelling
Conference, Canberra, Australi
Stochastic Mean-Field Limit: Non-Lipschitz Forces \& Swarming
We consider general stochastic systems of interacting particles with noise
which are relevant as models for the collective behavior of animals, and
rigorously prove that in the mean-field limit the system is close to the
solution of a kinetic PDE. Our aim is to include models widely studied in the
literature such as the Cucker-Smale model, adding noise to the behavior of
individuals. The difficulty, as compared to the classical case of globally
Lipschitz potentials, is that in several models the interaction potential
between particles is only locally Lipschitz, the local Lipschitz constant
growing to infinity with the size of the region considered. With this in mind,
we present an extension of the classical theory for globally Lipschitz
interactions, which works for only locally Lipschitz ones
A robot swarm assisting a human fire-fighter
Emergencies in industrial warehouses are a major concern for fire-fighters. The large dimensions, together with the development of dense smoke that drastically reduces visibility, represent major challenges. The GUARDIANS robot swarm is designed to assist fire-fighters in searching a large warehouse. In this paper we discuss the technology developed for a swarm of robots assisting fire-fighters. We explain the swarming algorithms that provide the functionality by which the robots react to and follow humans while no communication is required. Next we discuss the wireless communication system, which is a so-called mobile ad-hoc network. The communication network provides also the means to locate the robots and humans. Thus, the robot swarm is able to provide guidance information to the humans. Together with the fire-fighters we explored how the robot swarm should feed information back to the human fire-fighter. We have designed and experimented with interfaces for presenting swarm-based information to human beings
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