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Front. Inform. Technol. Electron. Eng.  2012, Vol. 13 Issue (5): 315-327    DOI: 10.1631/jzus.C1100243
    
Biologically inspired collective construction with visual landmarks
Zheng-wei Zhang, Hong Zhang, Yi-bin Li
School of Control Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, China; Department of Computing Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E8, Canada
Biologically inspired collective construction with visual landmarks
Zheng-wei Zhang, Hong Zhang, Yi-bin Li
School of Control Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, China; Department of Computing Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E8, Canada
 全文: PDF 
摘要： We describe our research in using environmental visual landmarks as the basis for completing simple robot construction tasks. Inspired by honeybee visual navigation behavior, a visual template mechanism is proposed in which a natural landmark serves as a visual reference or template for distance determination as well as for navigation during collective construction. To validate our proposed mechanism, a wall construction problem is investigated and a minimalist solution is given. Experimental results show that, using the mechanism of a visual template, a collective robotic system can successfully build the desired structure in a decentralized fashion using only local sensing and no direct communication. In addition, a particular variable, which defines tolerance for alignment of the structure, is found to impact the system performance. By decreasing the value of the variable, system performance is improved at the expense of a longer construction time. The visual template mechanism is appealing in that it can use a reference point or salient object in a natural environment that is new or unexplored and it could be adapted to facilitate more complicated building tasks.
关键词： Biologically inspired;  Swarm robotics;  Collective construction;  Visual landmark;  Template    
Abstract: We describe our research in using environmental visual landmarks as the basis for completing simple robot construction tasks. Inspired by honeybee visual navigation behavior, a visual template mechanism is proposed in which a natural landmark serves as a visual reference or template for distance determination as well as for navigation during collective construction. To validate our proposed mechanism, a wall construction problem is investigated and a minimalist solution is given. Experimental results show that, using the mechanism of a visual template, a collective robotic system can successfully build the desired structure in a decentralized fashion using only local sensing and no direct communication. In addition, a particular variable, which defines tolerance for alignment of the structure, is found to impact the system performance. By decreasing the value of the variable, system performance is improved at the expense of a longer construction time. The visual template mechanism is appealing in that it can use a reference point or salient object in a natural environment that is new or unexplored and it could be adapted to facilitate more complicated building tasks.
Key words: Biologically inspired    Swarm robotics    Collective construction    Visual landmark    Template
收稿日期: 2011-08-22 出版日期: 2012-05-03
CLC:  TP242  
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Zheng-wei Zhang
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引用本文:

Zheng-wei Zhang, Hong Zhang, Yi-bin Li. Biologically inspired collective construction with visual landmarks. Front. Inform. Technol. Electron. Eng., 2012, 13(5): 315-327.

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http://www.zjujournals.com/xueshu/fitee/CN/10.1631/jzus.C1100243    或    http://www.zjujournals.com/xueshu/fitee/CN/Y2012/V13/I5/315

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