Lunar Site Preparation and Open Pit Resource Extraction Using Neuromorphic Robot Swarms

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Decentralized multirobot systems offer a promising approach to automate labor-intensive dull and dangerous tasks in remote environments. Use of multiple robots provide inherent advantages including parallelism, fault-tolerance, reliability and scalability in design. However, this is offset by significant challenges from antagonism, when multiple robots trying to perform the same task interfere and undo the work of others causing unreliable performance or worse, gridlock. Conventional approaches rely on domain knowledge of a task at hand. In the absence of domain knowledge, human designers learn the required multirobot coordination strategies through trial and error. Using an artificial Darwinian approach, we automate the controller design process. This approach uses the Artificial Neural Tissues (ANT) that combines a typical feed-forward wired neural-network with a wireless chemical signaling scheme that facilitates self-organized task decomposition. ANT overcomes limitation with conventional and variable topology neural networks to find efficient solutions to a resource-collection task intended for unstructured environments. In this resource collection task, teams of robots need to forage for resources, collect and dump at a designated location. They need to learn to interpret a series of unlabeled cues to identify the dump location and may choose to exploit assets such as a light beacon to home in on these locations. The key to ANT’s advantage is its ability to perform trial and error exploration more efficiently enabling it to acquire creative solutions such as bucket brigades that enable effective cooperation with increased number of robots.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationThe Use of Artificial Intelligence for Space Applications - Workshop at the 2022 International Conference on Applied Intelligence and Informatics
EditorsCosimo Ieracitano, Nadia Mammone, Marco Di Clemente, Mufti Mahmud, Roberto Furfaro, Francesco Carlo Morabito
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Pages365-384
Number of pages20
ISBN (Print)9783031257544
DOIs
StatePublished - 2023
Event2nd International Conference on Applied Intelligence and Informatics , AII 2022 - Reggio Calabria, Italy
Duration: Sep 1 2022Sep 3 2022

Publication series

NameStudies in Computational Intelligence
Volume1088
ISSN (Print)1860-949X
ISSN (Electronic)1860-9503

Conference

Conference2nd International Conference on Applied Intelligence and Informatics , AII 2022
Country/TerritoryItaly
CityReggio Calabria
Period9/1/229/3/22

Keywords

  • Evolutionary algorithms
  • Multirobot
  • Neural-networks

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Artificial Intelligence

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