Synthesis of a Controller for Swarming Robots Performing Underwater Mine Countermeasures

Abstract

This Trident Scholar project involved the synthesis of a swarm controller that is suitable for controlling movements of a group of autonomous robots performing underwater mine countermeasures (UMCM). The main objective of this research project was to combine behavior-based robot control methods with systems-theoretic swarm control techniques to achieve a hybrid that has the best characteristics of both. The sub-goals were: a) To simulate and study a simplified version of the UMCM problem, in 2D with basic robot dynamics and behaviors. b) To investigate the performance of both behavior-based and systems-theoretic controllers for UMCM, and to determine their advantages and disadvantages. Careful development of behavior-based methods using a non-traditional differential equations approach facilitated the hybridization of the two controllers under study, giving rise to a more functional controller capable of controlling swarm level functions while executing the appropriate behaviors at the same time.