Sparse Robot Swarms for Atmospheric Electricity Measurement on Earth and other Planetoids

我第一年的项目重点是开发一群稀疏的移动机器人。经典的实验室群研究假设机器人的密度相当高，它们之间有频繁的通信和/或物理交互。随着我们走向“田间群体机器人”，机器人之间的距离将会更远(例如，100米，甚至1公里)，交流也会更加间歇性。它也可能有一个相对较小的群体规模(例如，4-10个机器人，而不是100+，低一个数量级)。这种稀疏的蜂群可能是对大片地区进行科学调查和监测的理想选择。该项目的总体目标是创建一个真实世界的稀疏群，可用于在地球[2]和其他小行星(如火星)上进行大气静电测量。研究大气静电是一个重要的研究领域，有可能促进我们对大气及其对地球和其他行星的影响的了解。一组广泛分散或分开的机器人可以提供大量关于大气中电活动的科学数据[1]。通过移动传感器寻找最感兴趣的点，对大气进行同步的空间分布测量，将开启大气和空间科学的新研究前沿(阿普林教授是这一领域的专家)。

My first-year project focused on the development of a 'sparse swarm' of mobile robots. Classic lab-bound swarm research assumes a rather high density of robots, with frequent communication and/or physical interaction between them. As we move toward 'field swarm robotics', robots will be further apart from each other (e.g. > 100m, or even > 1km) and communicate more intermittently [1]. It may also have a relatively small group size (e.g. 4-10 robots rather than 100+, an order of magnitude lower). Such a sparse swarm could be ideal for scientific survey and monitoring of large areas. The overall goal of this project is to create a real-world sparse swarm that can be used for atmospheric electrostatic measurements on Earth [2] and other planetoids, such as Mars. Studying atmospheric electrostatic electricity is an important area of research that has the potential to advance our understanding of the atmosphere and its impacts on the Earth and other planets. A group of widely dispersed or separated robots could provide a large amount of scientific data on the electrical activity in the atmosphere [1]. Obtaining simultaneous, spatially distributed measurement of the atmosphere, with mobile sensors that can seek out points of maximal interest, would unlock new research frontiers in atmospheric and space science (Prof. Aplin is an expert in this field).