Bioinspired lateralisation to improve search in robot swarms

“侧化，通俗地说就是偏手性，在动物中很常见，它的进化表明它可以提高机器人的效率。在像鸟群、鱼群和机器人群这样的群体中，偏侧化的多样性可能特别有益：与非偏侧化的个体相比，对左侧刺激更敏感的个体和对右侧刺激更敏感的个体可能会使整个群体具有更大的集体检测刺激的能力。在这个博士项目中，我们将在鱼群中进行测试，将Culum Brown教授（麦考瑞大学）的横向化专业知识与Christos Ioannou教授（布里斯托尔大学）开发的方法相结合，研究鱼群集体行为期间的搜索和检测（MacGregor等人，2020 Nature Communications）。利用研究结果并指导进一步的行为工作，学生将通过模拟和Sabine Hauert博士（布里斯托尔大学）的群体机器人测试平台，测试群体机器人的侧化如何影响机器人群体检测刺激的能力。该项目有以下目标：在鱼群中，确定群体内个体类型的混合（右侧向，左侧向和非侧向）与对短暂资源的响应效率之间的关系。在鱼群中，量化偏侧化变化对集体运动的影响，特别是鱼群凝聚力。在集体运动的通用模型中模拟偏侧化变化的影响，包括代理人如何对短暂资源作出反应。使用群机器人测试平台，在真实机器人中实现仿真结果。我们预测，左右侧化个体和非侧化个体的混合将对群体凝聚力最有效，但没有非侧化个体的群体将在搜索方面最有效。这是因为非侧边化的个体可能起到“胶水”的作用，使群体保持在一起，而且往往位于群体的中心，但对目标的探测贡献较小。该项目完全在EPSRC的职权范围内，因为它寻求生物启发的解决方案，以提高机器人群的能力，这有广泛的潜在现实应用。特别是，当群体由左右侧向、左右侧向和非侧向混合的个体组成时，负责搜索目标的群体机器人可能会更有效。该项目属于EPSRC机器人和控制工程研究领域。”

"Lateralisation, colloquially referred to as handedness, is common in animals and its evolution suggests that it may improve efficiency in robotics. In groups such as bird flocks, fish schools and robot swarms, diversity in lateralisation may be particularly beneficial: having individuals that are more sensitive to stimuli on their left and others that are more sensitive on their right may give the group as a whole a greater ability to collectively detect stimuli than groups of non-lateralised individuals. In this PhD project we will test this in shoals of fish, combining the expertise in lateralisation of Prof. Culum Brown (Macquarie University) with an approach developed by Prof. Christos Ioannou (University of Bristol) to study search and detection during fish shoal collective behaviour (MacGregor et al., 2020 Nature Communications). Using findings from and guiding further behavioural work, the student will test how lateralisation in swarming robots affects the ability of robot swarms to detect stimuli using simulations and a swarm robotics testbed with Dr. Sabine Hauert (University of Bristol).The project has the following objectives: In fish shoals, determine the relationship between the mix of individual types within the group (right lateralised, left lateralised and non-lateralised) and the efficiency of responding to ephemeral resources. In fish shoals, quantify the effect of variation in lateralisation on collective movement, particularly shoal cohesion.Simulate the effects of variation in lateralisation in a generic model of collective movement, including how the agents respond to ephemeral resources.Implement findings from the simulation in real robots, using a swarm robotics testbed.We predict that a mix of lateralised (to both right and left) and non-lateralised individuals will be most effective for group cohesion, but groups without non-lateralised individuals will be most effective at searching. This is because non-lateralised individuals may act as a 'glue' to keep groups together, and tend to be found at the centre of groups, but contribute less to detection of targets.The project is well within the EPSRC remit as it seeks bioinspired solutions to improving the capability of robot swarms, which have a wide range of potential real-world applications. In particular, swarming robots tasked with searching for targets may be more effective when the swarms are a mix of individuals lateralised to the right, lateralised to the left, and non-lateralised. This project falls within the EPSRC Robotics and Control engineering research areas."