Command Control for Many-Robot Systems

Rapidly evolving sensor, effector and processing technologies, including micromechanical fabrication techniques, will soon make possible the development of very inexpensive autonomous mobile devices with adequate processing but fairly limited sensor capabilities. One goal which has been proposed is to employ large numbers (more than 100) of these simple robots to achieve real-world military mission goals in the ground, air, and underwater environments, using sensor-based reactive planners to realize desired emergent collective group behaviors. One key prerequisite to realizing this goal is the capability to command and control the system of robots in terms of meaningful mission-oriented system-level parameters. A commander requires an understanding of a system's capabilities, doctrine for employing it, and measures of effectiveness to assess its performance once deployed. It is thus necessary to relate system (ensemble) functionality and performance to the behaviors realized by the individual autonomous elements. This paper describes a program of analysis, modeling, algorithm development, and simulation which has been undertaken to develop, refine, and validate this basic approach to real-world problem solving. The initial thrust has been to develop generic behaviors, such as blanket, barrier, and sweep coverage, and various deployment and recovery modes, which can address a broad spectrum of generic applications such as mine deployment, minesweeping, surveillance, sentry duty, maintenance inspection, ship hull cleaning, and communications relaying. Initial simulation results are presented. 1.0 INTRODUCTION The critical sensor, effector, and processing technologies that are prerequisite to the development of the military mobile robots of the 21st century are evolving rapidly. Moreover, while major thrusts in the development of military mobile robots have been undertaken in the areas of Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs), Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs), and Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs), continuing developments in solid-state sensor and effector technologies suggest that unexploited opportunities exist at the lower end of the spectrum of robotic vehicle functionality and performance [1, 2]. In fact, the emerging field of micromachines (also termed microdynamics, mechatronics, or microelectromechanical systems) was selected