CDI-TYPE I: RUI: Emergent Hierarchies of Leaders in Multi-Robot Systems

在探索、侦察和搜救等有趣的现实任务中使用机器人团队的能力取决于它们在复杂和动态环境中有效合作的能力。来自自然的观察和个人经验表明，领导力可以对团队的协调和表现产生重大的积极影响。然而，目前在机器人团队中选择领导者的过程要么无法适应团队成员的变化，要么需要大量的时间和精力来做到这一点。相比之下，生物科学的研究表明，通过内部激励而不是外部沟通产生的具有领导者的系统，能够适应复杂和动态环境中团队成员的变化。在这些系统中，领导者更多地被认为是“行动的发起者”，而不是指导其他个体的“管理者”。在这个项目中，研究人员将利用这些对生物系统的洞察来调查不仅导致单个领导者出现的动机和机制，而且有助于在机器人团队中出现层级领导者的动机和机制。潜在的动机和机制将在模拟常见的基于团队的机器人任务中进行评估，这些任务需要单个机器人的合作和协调。对浮现过程的了解将使机器人专家能够使用机器人团队来执行目前使用它们不现实的任务。此外，该项目还将通过为进一步的生物实验提供理论基础来增加生命科学的知识体系。这些贡献的结合具有变革性，不仅是因为它将对设计受益于改进的协调与合作的多机器人系统的能力产生实际影响，而且还因为它影响了我们对促进出现有组织的领导结构的基本理解。

The ability to use teams of robots in interesting, real-world tasks such as exploration, reconnaissance, and search and rescue depends on their ability to effectively cooperate in complex and dynamic environments. Observations from nature and personal experience show that leadership can have a significant positive impact in the coordination and performance of a team. However, current processes for selecting leaders in teams of robots are either unable to adapt to changes to team membership or require significant time and effort to do so. In contrast, research in the biological sciences has shown that systems with leaders that emerge by way of internal motivation, and not external communication, are able to adapt to changes in team membership in complex and dynamic environments. In these systems, leaders are thought of more as "initiators of action" rather than "managers" that direct other individuals.In this project, the researchers will use these insights into biological systems to investigate the motivations and mechanisms that contribute to the emergence of not only a single leader, but to the emergence of a hierarchy of leaders in a team of robots. Potential motivations and mechanisms will be evaluated in simulations of common team-based robot tasks that require cooperation and coordination of the individual robots. An understanding of the emergence process will enable roboticists to use teams of robots in tasks for which their use is currently impractical. Furthermore, this project will also increase the body of knowledge in the life sciences by providing a theoretical foundation on which further biological experiments can be based. The combination of these contributions is transformative not only for the practical impact it will have on the ability to design multi-robot systems that benefit from improved coordination and cooperation, but also for its impact on our fundamental understanding of what facilitates the emergence of organized leadership structures.