In swarm robotics, robots with only poor computational equipment are often used. Additionally, the precision of their actuators and sensors is rather poor. This causes a challenge in the construction of controllers able to achieve complex behaviors on such robotic systems. Here we describe a novel bio-inspired concept of a robot control paradigm, which is inspired by the information-processing of simple microorganisms. The basic idea is that we use a roughly abstracted model of inter-cellular signal emission and signal processing to control the movement behavior of a two-wheeled autonomous robot. Many unicellular organisms are able to perform taxisbehavior (phototaxis, chemotaxis, etc.) without having sophisticated sensor equipment and without possessing neuronal structures. Our Artificial Homeostatic Hormone System (AHHS) mimics primitive chemical signal networks and is able to achieve taxis-behavior with little computational cost. In this article the controller is analyzed in a simple mathematical model and additional tests are performed on a more sophisticated multi-agent simulation of robotic hardware and the controller is implemented on real robotic hardware.
['Thomas Schmickl', 'Heiko Hamann', 'Jürgen Stradner', 'Ralf Mayet', 'Karl Crailsheim']
Complex Taxis-Behaviour in a Novel Bio-Inspired Robot Controller.