We investigate the effect of turning delays on the behaviour of groups of
differential wheeled robots and show that the group-level behaviour can be
described by a transport equation with a suitably incorporated delay. The
results of our mathematical analysis are supported by numerical simulations and
experiments with e-puck robots. The experimental quantity we compare to our
revised model is the mean time for robots to find the target area in an unknown
environment. The transport equation with delay better predicts the mean time to
find the target than the standard transport equation without delay.Comment: Submitted to the IMA Journal of Applied Mathematic
