Controlling Diversity to Maximize Performance in a Heterogeneous Swarm of Robots
Amanda Prorok, M. Ani Hsieh, Vijay Kumar

Citation
Amanda Prorok, M. Ani Hsieh, Vijay Kumar. "Controlling Diversity to Maximize Performance in a Heterogeneous Swarm of Robots". Talk or presentation, 14, October, 2015; Poster presented at the 2015 TerraSwarm Annual Meeting.

Abstract
We are interested in a principled study of the effects of diversity in heterogeneous swarms. In order to evaluate the implications of heterogeneity on performance, we consider the concrete problem of distributing a large group of robots among a set of tasks that require specialized capabilities in order to be completed. We model the system of heterogeneous robots as a community of species, where each species (robot type) is defined by the traits (capabilities) that it owns. We develop a continuous model of the system at a macroscopic level, and formulate an optimization problem that produces an optimal set of transition rates for each species, so that the desired trait distribution is reached as quickly as possible. In order to evaluate the effects of heterogeneity, we propose a diversity metric that defines the notion of eigenspecies. We show that our metric correlates with performance: the higher the cardinality of the eigenspecies, the harder it becomes to optimize the system. Our approach is validated over multiple levels of abstraction, and real robot results confirm its validity on physical platforms.

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Citation formats

• HTML

  Amanda Prorok, M. Ani Hsieh, Vijay Kumar. <a
  href="http://www.terraswarm.org/pubs/642.html"><i>Controlling
  Diversity to Maximize Performance in a Heterogeneous Swarm
  of Robots</i></a>, Talk or presentation,  14,
  October, 2015; Poster presented at the <a
  href="http://terraswarm.org/conferences/15/annual"
  >2015 TerraSwarm Annual Meeting</a>.

• Plain text

  Amanda Prorok, M. Ani Hsieh, Vijay Kumar. "Controlling
  Diversity to Maximize Performance in a Heterogeneous Swarm
  of Robots". Talk or presentation,  14, October, 2015;
  Poster presented at the <a
  href="http://terraswarm.org/conferences/15/annual"
  >2015 TerraSwarm Annual Meeting</a>.

• BibTeX

  @presentation{ProrokHsiehKumar15_ControllingDiversityToMaximizePerformanceInHeterogeneous,
      author = {Amanda Prorok and M. Ani Hsieh and Vijay Kumar},
      title = {Controlling Diversity to Maximize Performance in a
                Heterogeneous Swarm of Robots},
      day = {14},
      month = {October},
      year = {2015},
      note = {Poster presented at the <a
                href="http://terraswarm.org/conferences/15/annual"
                >2015 TerraSwarm Annual Meeting</a>},
      abstract = {We are interested in a principled study of the
                effects of diversity in heterogeneous swarms. In
                order to evaluate the implications of
                heterogeneity on performance, we consider the
                concrete problem of distributing a large group of
                robots among a set of tasks that require
                specialized capabilities in order to be completed.
                We model the system of heterogeneous robots as a
                community of species, where each species (robot
                type) is defined by the traits (capabilities) that
                it owns. We develop a continuous model of the
                system at a macroscopic level, and formulate an
                optimization problem that produces an optimal set
                of transition rates for each species, so that the
                desired trait distribution is reached as quickly
                as possible. In order to evaluate the effects of
                heterogeneity, we propose a diversity metric that
                defines the notion of eigenspecies. We show that
                our metric correlates with performance: the higher
                the cardinality of the eigenspecies, the harder it
                becomes to optimize the system. Our approach is
                validated over multiple levels of abstraction, and
                real robot results confirm its validity on
                physical platforms.},
      URL = {http://terraswarm.org/pubs/642.html}
  }
  

Posted by Amanda Prorok, PhD on 7 Oct 2015.
Groups: services