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The scenario

An application in which self-organisation and self-assembling can be useful is the classical Search & Rescue in complex environments. A swarm of up to 35 s-bots must transport a heavy object from its initial to a goal location. On the right side can be seen the yellow goal location; on the left side the grey object to be transported, surrounded by s-bots. There are several possible paths from the initial to the goal location and these paths may have different lengths and may require avoiding obstacles and holes. The weight of the object is such that its transportation requires the coordinate effort of at least n s-bots, where n>1 is a parameter. The overall scenario can be split into two main tasks: finding an object or a goal location, and performing cooperative transport. This is detailed in the following.

	The s-bots are positioned in an arena and they have to locate and connect to the object to be transported. Other s-bots have to locate the goal and build a chain connecting it to the object's initial location.
At this phase, the s-bots after having located the goal and the optimal path to it, have formed a chain connecting the object to it. The chain members are the coloured s-bots. The rest of the s-bots are connected to the object and the transportation phase is ready to start.
	The object is been transported by the cooperative effort of the s-bots along the chain that has been established.
The task is nearly concluded as the object approaches the goal location.
Scenario 3D Overview Movie (MOV 11.5 MB)

Control >> The scenario