ABSTRACT:
The problem of how to perform decentralized coordination of the spatial distribution of agents is found in a number of applications. Autonomous robots with range-limited communication and sensing radii must coordinate their decisions on where to allocate their sensing resources to achieve prioritized surveillance of multiple widely dispersed areas. A hive of honey bees allocates foragers according to forage site profitability without a central coordinator. In this talk, a mathematical model of the behavior of a group of agents and their interactions in a shared environment is introduced. Environmental spatial constraints are included to model range-limited sensing, motion, and communication capabilities of the agents. General sensing, coordination, and motion conditions on the agents are derived that guarantee that an "ideal free distribution" (IFD) of the group of agents will emerge. The impact of group size and environment type on the distribution of agents is quantified. Applications of the theory to a multivehicle cooperative surveillance problem and honey bee social foraging are discussed.
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