Swarms of robots work better with fewer opinions

Led by Dr Andreagiovanni Reina from Sheffield University’s Department of Computer Science, the study published in Science Robotics could improve how swarms of robots work together, adapt to changes in their environment and make sophisticated decisions more quickly.

The study is said to disprove the widely accepted theory that more connections between robots leads to more effective information exchange.

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The team, which included researchers from UCL and IRIDIA, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium, discovered their findings by studying how a swarm of tiny robots moved around and reached a consensus on the best area they should gather in and explore.

According to the study, each robot assessed the environment individually, made its own decision on the best area and broadcast its opinion to the rest of the swarm. Every robot in the swarm then periodically selected a random assessment that had been broadcast by another robot in the swarm and used it to update its opinion on the best area - a protocol dubbed the voter model. Once every robot had gone through this process the swarm reached a consensus on the best area to gather and explore based on the opinion of each robot.