2019/03/15 by Barciś, Agata, Barciś, Michał, Bettstetter, Christian · 1 citation
#FOS: Computer and information sciences #Robotics (cs.RO)
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1903.06440
A unified mathematical model for synchronisation and swarming has recently been proposed. Each system entity, called a "swarmalator", coordinates its internal phase and location with the other entities in a way that these two attributes are mutually coupled. This paper realises and studies, for the first time, the concept of swarmalators in a technical system. We adapt and extend the original model for its use with mobile robots and implement it in the Robot Operating System 2 (ROS 2). Simulations and experiments with small robots demonstrate the feasibility of the model and show its potential to be applied to real-world systems. All types of space-time patterns achieved in theory can be reproduced in practice. Applications can be found in monitoring, exploration, entertainment and art, among other domains.