2019/02/27 by Siddharth Mayya, Mayya, Siddharth, Gennaro Notomista +7 · 1 citation
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Diffusion and Search Dynamics #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Micro and Nano Robotics #Multiagent Systems (cs.MA) #Robotics (cs.RO)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1902.10662
openalex publication_date 2019/02/27 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
In robot swarms operating under highly restrictive sensing and communication\nconstraints, individuals may need to use direct physical proximity to\nfacilitate information exchange. However, in certain task-related scenarios,\nthis requirement might conflict with the need for robots to spread out in the\nenvironment, e.g., for distributed sensing or surveillance applications. This\npaper demonstrates how a swarm of minimally-equipped robots can form\nhigh-density robot aggregates which coexist with lower robot densities in the\ndomain. We envision a scenario where a swarm of vibration-driven robots---which\nsit atop bristles and achieve directed motion by vibrating them---move somewhat\nrandomly in an environment while colliding with each other. Theoretical\ntechniques from the study of far-from-equilibrium collectives and statistical\nmechanics clarify the mechanisms underlying the formation of these high and low\ndensity regions. Specifically, we capitalize on a transformation that connects\nthe collective properties of a system of self-propelled particles with that of\na well-studied molecular fluid system, thereby inheriting the rich theory of\nequilibrium thermodynamics. This connection is a formal one and is a relatively\nrecent result in studies of motility induced phase separation; it is previously\nunexplored in the context of robotics. Real robot experiments as well as\nsimulations illustrate how inter-robot collisions can precipitate the formation\nof non-uniform robot densities in a closed and bounded region.\n