Dynamic reconfigurable platform for swarm robotics

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Swarm intelligence research was inspired by biological systems in nature. Working ants andbees has captivated researchers for centuries, with the ant playing a major role in shaping thefuture of robotic swarm applications. The ants foraging activity can be adapted for differentapplications of robotic swarm intelligence. Numerous researchers have conducted theoreticalanalysis and experiments on the ants foraging activities and communication styles.Combining this information with modern reconfigurable computing opens the door to morecomplex behaviour with improved system dynamics. Reconfigurable computing hasnumerous applications in swarm intelligence such as true hardware parallel processing,dynamic power save algorithms and dynamic peripheral changes to the CPU core.In this research a brief study is made of swarm intelligence and its applications. The ants'foraging activities were studied in greater detail with the emphasis on a layered control systemdesigned implementation in a robotic agent. The robotic agent's hardware was designed usinga partial self reconfigurable FPGA as the main building element. The hardware was designedwith the emphasis on system flexibility for swarm application drawing attention to powerreduction and battery life. All of this was packaged into a differential drive chassis designedspecifically for this project.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University