Phase transitions in multi-robot interactions

Johnson, Colin G. and Brodie, Steven J. (2001) Phase transitions in multi-robot interactions. In: Towards Intelligent Mobile Robots - Proceedings of the 3rd British Conference on Autonomous Mobile Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 5 April 2001, Manchester.

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Abstract

Phase transitions are where a small change in a parameter causes a qualitative change in the behaviour or state of a system. We can apply this concept to determining the connectivity of a population of mobile robots. Consider a population of mobile robots which can pass messages to other nearby robots. When the number of robots is small, or their working environment is large, robots will only be able to pass a message to a small number of others. However there is a point where if we increase the population by a small number, increase the communication range slightly, or reduce the working area by a small amount, the connectivity of the population increases suddenly to a point where almost all robots are communicating with each other. The consequences of this for multi-robot learning are discussed.

Item Type:	Conference or workshop item (Paper)
Uncontrolled keywords:	mobile robots, emergent behaviour, random graphs, small worlds phenomenon,simulation
Subjects:	Q Science > QA Mathematics (inc Computing science) > QA 76 Software, computer programming,
Divisions:	Faculties > Science Technology and Medical Studies > School of Computing > Applied and Interdisciplinary Informatics Group
Depositing User:	Mark Wheadon
Date Deposited:	24 Nov 2008 17:59
Last Modified:	06 Sep 2011 01:11
Resource URI:	http://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/13624 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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