Two decentralized behaviors for robotic swarms from simulation to the field

Many applications benefit from the use of multiple robots, but their scalability and applicability are fundamentally limited when relying on a central control station. Getting beyond the centralized approach can increase the complexity of the embedded software, the sensitivity to the network topology, and render the deployment on physical devices tedious and error-prone. This work introduces a software-based solution to cope with these challenges on commercial hardware. We bring together our previous work on Buzz, the swarm-oriented programming language, and the many contributions of the Robotic Operating System (ROS) community into a reliable workflow, from rapid prototyping of decentralized behaviours up to robust field deployment. The Buzz programming language is a hardware independent, domain-specific (swarm-oriented), and composable language. From simulation to the field, a Buzz script can stay unmodified and almost seamlessly applicable to all units of a heterogeneous robotic team. We present the software structure of our solution, and the swarm-oriented paradigms it encompasses. While the design of a new behaviour can be achieved on a lightweight simulator, we show how our security mechanisms enhance field deployment robustness. In addition, developers can update their scripts in the field using a safe software release mechanism. Integrating Buzz in ROS, adding safety mechanisms and granting field updates are core contributions essential to swarm robotics deployment: from simulation to the field. We show the applicability of our work with the implementation of two practical decentralized scenarios: a robust generic task allocation strategy and an optimized area coverage algorithm. Both behaviours are explained and tested with simulations, then experimented with heterogeneous ground-and-air robotic teams.

众多应用得益于多机器人系统的使用，然而，当依赖中心控制站时，其可扩展性和适用性在本质上受到限制。超越集中式方法可能会增加嵌入式软件的复杂性、对网络拓扑的敏感性，并使得在物理设备上的部署变得繁琐且易出错。本研究提出了一种基于软件的解决方案，以应对商业硬件上面临的这些挑战。我们将我们在 Buzz（一种面向群集的编程语言）方面的先前工作与机器人操作系统（ROS）社区的诸多贡献相结合，形成了一种可靠的工作流程，从快速原型设计去中心化行为到稳健的现场部署。Buzz 编程语言是一种硬件无关、领域特定（面向群集）且可组合的语言。从仿真到实际应用，Buzz 脚本无需修改即可几乎无缝地应用于异构机器人团队的各个单元。我们展示了我们解决方案的软件结构及其所包含的面向群集的范式。虽然新的行为设计可以在轻量级模拟器上实现，但我们展示了我们的安全机制如何增强现场部署的稳健性。此外，开发者可以使用安全的软件发布机制在现场更新他们的脚本。将 Buzz 集成到 ROS 中、添加安全机制以及允许现场更新是群机器人部署的核心贡献，从仿真到实际应用。我们通过实现两个实用的去中心化场景来展示我们工作的适用性：一种稳健的通用任务分配策略和一种优化的区域覆盖算法。这两种行为均通过仿真进行了解释和测试，随后在异构地面和空中机器人团队中进行实验。