Hybrid Societies : Challenges and Perspectives in the Design of Collective Behavior in Self-organizing Systems

Hybrid societies are self-organizing, collective systems, which are composed of different components, for example, natural and artificial parts (bio-hybrid) or human beings interacting with and through technical systems (socio-technical). Many different disciplines investigate methods and systems closely related to the design of hybrid societies. A stronger collaboration between these disciplines could allow for re-use of methods and create significant synergies. We identify three main areas of challenges in the design of self-organizing hybrid societies. First, we identify the formalization challenge. There is an urgent need for a generic model that allows a description and comparison of collective hybrid societies. Second, we identify the system design challenge. Starting from the formal specification of the system, we need to develop an integrated design process. Third, we identify the challenge of interdisciplinarity. Current research on self-organizing hybrid societies stretches over many different fields and hence requires the re-use and synthesis of methods at intersections between disciplines. We then conclude by presenting our perspective for future approaches with high potential in this area

Towards Self-Healing Swarm Robotic Systems Inspired by Granuloma Formation

Abstract—Granuloma is a medical term for a ball-like collection of immune cells that attempts to remove foreign substances from a host organism. This response is a special type of inflammatory reaction common to a wide variety of diseases. Granulomas are an organised collection of macrophages, whose formation involves the stimulation of macrophages as well as T-Cells. Fault tolerance in swarm robotic systems is essential to the continued operation of swarm robotic systems. Under certain conditions, a failing robot can have a detrimental effect on the overall swarm behaviour, causing stagnation in the swarm and affecting its ability to undertake its task. Our study is concerned specifically with modelling the trafficking of macrophages and T-cells in the development of granuloma formation, and using that as a basis to create a self-healing swarm robotic system, in the context of power system failure. I

Análisis de arquitecturas existentes para robótica colectiva y desarrollo de nuevas soluciones que mejoren las identificadas

Programa Oficial de Doutoramento en Tecnoloxías da Información e as Comunicacións. 5032V01[Resumo] A presente tese está orientada a arquitecturas de sistemas multi-robot en xeral, sen restricións de tamaño do colectivo de robots ou do eido de aplicación. En primeiro lugar identifica e describe os atributos destes sistemas así como das arquitecturas que lles dan soporte para logo propoñer un sistema de avaliación que permite cuantificar as capacidades destas últimas. Este sistema está baseado en probas e simulacións de diferentes aspectos como son (entre outros) a coordinación, a adaptación ou a interoperabilidade. Os resultados do sistema de avaliación permiten a comparación e selección da arquitectura máis axeitada dependendo das necesidades do novo sistema a desenvolver. Ademais este sistema permite a avaliación de forma rápida de modificacións na arquitectura. A arquitectura proposta trata de cubrir todas as posibilidades útiles en sistemas multi-robot permitindo a reutilización de calquera compoñente do sistema. Ademais facilita a interoperabilidade con outros sistemas e define un protocolo de mensaxes (a modo de linguaxe) que deben usar os membros do colectivo. Esta linguaxe representa o conxunto mínimo de operacións para que un colectivo poida desenvolver calquera tarefa. A esta proposta aplícaselle o sistema de avaliación dando mellores resultados na maioría das métricas que as outras arquitecturas avaliadas.[Resumen] La presente tesis está orientada a las arquitecturas de sistemas multi-robot en general, sin restricciones de tamaño del colectivo de robots o del ámbito de aplicación. Primeramente identifica y describe los atributos de estos sistemas así como los de las arquitecturas que les dan soporte para luego desarrollar un sistema de evaluación que permita identificar las capacidades de estas últimas, basado en la prueba y simulación de diferentes aspectos como son (entre otros) la coordinación, la adaptación o la interoperabilidad. Los resultados del sistema de evaluación permiten comparar y seleccionar de entre las arquitecturas la más idónea según las necesidades un nuevo sistema a desarrollar. Además permite evaluar, de forma rápida, modificaciones. La arquitectura propuesta trata de cubrir todas las posibilidades útiles en sistemas muti-robot permitiendo la reutilización de cualquier componente del sistema. Además facilita la interoperabilidad con otros sistemas y define un protocolo de mensajes básico, a modo de idioma, que deben usar los miembros del colectivo multi-robot. Este idioma representa el conjunto de operaciones mínimo para que un colectivo pueda cooperar desarrollando cualquier tarea. A esta propuesta se le ha aplicado el sistema de evaluación con resultados que, en su mayoría, mejoran las arquitecturas existentes.[Abstract] This thesis is aimed to multi-robot architectures in general, without size of collective or application environment restrictions. The attributes that describe the architectures and multi-robot systems are identified and documented. These attributes contribute to generate metrics of the architectures’ relevant aspects that, in turn, are used to quantify the capacities. The metrics compose an evaluation system that rely on the simulation of the relevant aspects such as coordination, adaption, or interoperability. Results from the evaluation system allow architectures comparison and selection in order to implement a new multi-robot system. The evaluation system enables the quick evaluation of an architecture modifications. This thesis also propose a new architecture trying to cover all multi-robot systems based on reusing the system components as needed; This architecture makes easy to operate with other systems. A message protocol (a kind of language between the robots) is defined containing the minimal set of operations that the individuals must implement in order to carry any task. The evaluation system is applied to this new architecture yielding better results in most of the metrics than the other architectures evaluated

Methods for the Efficient Deployment and Coordination of Swarm Robotic Systems

Swarming has been observed in many animal species, including fish, birds, insects and mammals. These biological observations have inspired mathematical models of distributed coordination that have been applied to the development of multi-agent robotic systems, such as collections of unmanned autonomous vehicles (UAVs). The advantages of a swarming approach to distributed coordination are clear: each agent acts according to a simple set of rules that can be implemented on resource-constrained devices, and so it becomes feasible to replicate agents in order to build more resilient systems. However, there remain significant challenges in making the approach practicable. This thesis addresses two of the most significant: coordination and scalability. New coordination algorithms are proposed here, all of which manage the problem of scalability by requiring only local proximity sensing between agents, without the need for any other communications infrastructure. A major source of inefficiency in the deployment of a swarm is ‘oscillation’: small movements of agents that arise as a side effect of the application of their rules but which are not strictly necessary in order to satisfy the overall system function. The thesis introduces a new metric for ‘oscillation’ that allows it to be identified and measured in swarm control algorithms. A new perimeter detection mechanism is introduced and applied to the coordination of goal-based swarms. The mechanism is used to improve the internal coordination of agents whilst maintaining a directional focus to the swarm; this is then analysed using the new metric. A mechanism is proposed to allow a swarm to exhibit a ‘healing’ behaviour by identifying internal perimeter edges (doughnuts) and then altering the movement of agents, based upon a simple criterion, to remove the holes; this also has the emergent effect of smoothing the outer edges of a swarm and creating a more uniform swarm structure. Area coverage is an important requirement in many swarm applications. Two new, efficient area-filling techniques are introduced here and exit conditions are identified to determine when a swarm has filled an area. In summary, the thesis makes significant contributions to the analysis and design of efficient control algorithms for the coordination of large scale swarms