MORE | Spring 2020

Ant-Inspired Control Strategies for Collective Transport by Dynamic Teams with Temporary Leaders

Ant groups often work together to transport food and materials back to their nests. In some cases, the group exhibits leader-follower behaviors where a single ant guides the entire group based on its knowledge about the destination. The leader role is occupied temporarily by an ant until it is replaced by another ant with new information. This kind of behavior can be very useful for teams of robots with limited information that must work together to transport an object in uncertain environments. The purpose of this research was to design and simulate controllers that implement this behavior on robot teams.