Marine algae inspired dispersion of swarm robots with binary sensory information

Abstract The dynamics of swarm robotic systems are complex and often nonlinear. One key issue is to design the controllers of a large number of simple, low-cost robots so that emergence can be observed. This paper presents a sensor and computation-friendly controller for swarm robotic systems inspired by the mechanisms observed in algae. The aim is to achieve uniform dispersion of robots by mimicking the circular movement observed in marine algae systems. The proposed controller utilizes binary sensory information (i.e., see or not see) to guide the robots’ motion. By moving circularly and switching the radii based on the perception of other robots in their line of sight, the robots imitate the repulsion behavior observed in algae. The controller relies solely on binary-state sensory input, eliminating the need for additional memory or communication. Up to 1024 simulated robots are used to validate the effectiveness of the dispersion controller, while experiments with 30 physical robots demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach.