Parallel Manipulation of Millirobot Swarms Using Projected Light Fields

This paper introduces a method to form global patterns of 10+ autonomous millirobots, the Tiny Terrestrial Robot Platforms (TinyTeRPs), with only local information available to each robot. The TinyTeRPs are equipped with light sensors that measure a globally projected dynamic light field, and radios for RSSI inter-robot distance estimation. An agent-based simulation is used to extrapolate the experimentally observed behavior in swarms of up to 225 robots. In concert, a diffusion-inspired analytic model is presented to create closed-form equations for estimating the time it will take to form a pattern. This allows the behavior to be characterized using an algorithmic complexity framework. With this approach, forming patterns can be done in time scaling linearly with the number of robots in the pattern. Furthermore, the models predict that no matter how large swarm size grows, patterns can be formed in constant time as long as only a fixed fraction of the swarm needs to succeed. Insights into the reasons for this behavior, characterizations of the sensors and their interactions, and suggestions to build on this work are included.