An important problem in microrobotics is how to control a large group of microrobots with a global control signal. This paper focuses on controlling a large-scale swarm of MicroStressBots with on-board physical finite-state machines. We introduce the concept of group-based control, which makes it possible to scale up the swarm size while reducing the complexity both of robot fabrication as well as swarm control. We prove that the group-based control system is locally accessible in terms of the robot positions. We further hypothesize based on extensive simulations that the system is globally controllable. A nonlinear optimization strategy is proposed to control the swarm by minimizing control effort. We also propose a probabilistically complete collision avoidance method that is suitable for online use. The paper concludes with an evaluation of the proposed methods in simulations.
翻译:微型机器人的一个重要问题是,如何用全球控制信号控制一大批微型机器人。本文件的重点是控制大批微型StressBots,使用机载物理上有限状态的机器控制大批微型StressBots。我们引入了集团控制的概念,这样可以扩大群体规模,同时降低机器人制造和群体控制的复杂程度。我们证明,以集团为基础的控制系统以机器人的位置可以在当地使用。我们根据广泛的模拟进一步虚构,认为系统可以在全球控制。我们提议了一项非线性优化战略,通过尽量减少控制努力来控制群体。我们还提出了一种适合在线使用的概率完全避免碰撞的方法。本文件最后对模拟中的拟议方法进行了评估。