Perpetual Robot Swarm: Long-Term Autonomy of Mobile Robots Using On-the-fly Inductive Charging
Perpetual Robot Swarm: Long-Term Autonomy of Mobile Robots Using On-the-fly Inductive Charging
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DOI：
10.1007/s10846-017-0673-8
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发表时间：
2018-12-01
影响因子：
3.3
通讯作者：
Lennox，Barry
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Arvin，Farshad;Watson，Simon;Lennox，Barry
群机器人研究大量简单机器人长期交互中出现的智能集体行为。然而，维持大量机器人长时间运行需要大量的电池容量，这对于小型机器人来说是一个问题。因此，已经实现了诸如自动电池交换站的再充电系统。这些系统要求机器人中断，尽管很短，他们的活动，这影响了群体的行为。本文提出了一种由多个充电电池组成的低成本即时无线充电系统，用于群体机器人研究。为了确定系统的能力，以支持永久群操作，概率模型，考虑到群的大小，机器人的行为和充电区域的配置，概述。基于该模型，开发了一个具有12个充电电池和小型移动的机器人莫纳的原型系统。一系列不同场地和行为配置的长期实验表明，该模型的准确性，并证明了系统的能力，以支持多机器人系统的永久操作。
Swarm robotics studies the intelligent collective behaviour emerging from long-term interactions of large number of simple robots. However, maintaining a large number of robots operational for long time periods requires significant battery capacity, which is an issue for small robots. Therefore, re-charging systems such as automated battery-swapping stations have been implemented. These systems require that the robots interrupt, albeit shortly, their activity, which influences the swarm behaviour. In this paper, a low-cost on-the-fly wireless charging system, composed of several charging cells, is proposed for use in swarm robotic research studies. To determine the system’s ability to support perpetual swarm operation, a probabilistic model that takes into account the swarm size, robot behaviour and charging area configuration, is outlined. Based on the model, a prototype system with 12 charging cells and a small mobile robot,Mona, was developed. A series of long-term experiments with different arenas and behavioural configurations indicated the model’s accuracy and demonstrated the system’s ability to support perpetual operation of multi-robotic system.