FUTURES EXPO SERIES
Bootstrapping Ad Hoc Robot Swarms
Enabling greater effectiveness of robot swarms
Research Project
Robot swarm formations offer efficient movement , a level of protection for the group , and potential for human guidance of a single swarm organism comprising many autonomous vehicles .
Robot swarms are suited for tasks including , but not limited to , surveillance , transport , search , exploration , mapping , sorting , communication and resource controlling . In the past , swarm robotics required significant human input to configure usable formations for different tasks .
This team ’ s algorithms permit ad hoc formation of swarms from available units for new missions . It has developed multiple swarm-robot prototypes to demonstrate proof of concept – from swarms small enough to carry in a suitcase , to heavy duty , groundvehicle swarms suitable for use outdoors .
Key capabilities
> Developmental robotics > Swarm intelligence
Differentiators
> Self-tuning and self-evaluating swarms
> Able to predict mission time and / or meet time constraints
> Harnessing the developmental robotics paradigm for multi-robot swarms
Key customers
> Defence > Transport > Agriculture
Key partnerships
> Australian Research Council > Defence Science and Technology
Group
unsw . to / kathryn-kasmarik 52 •