Self-organized Flocking of a Mobile Robot Swarm by Topological Distance-based Interactions

Self-organized flocking of robotic swarms has been investigated for approximately twenty years. Most studies are based on a computer animation model named Boid. The Boid model reproduces flocking motion by three simple behavioral rules: collision avoidance, velocity matching, and flock centering. Boid-like flocking motions are generated from the interacting positions and orientations of neighboring robots. This paper investigates a technique by which interactions among neighboring robots in a swarm are determined by their topological separations. The effectiveness of the proposed method is quantitatively evaluated in real robot experiments.