CyberRescue: A pheromone approach to multi-agent rescue simulations

In this work the authors propose a pure pheromonebased implementation of a CyberRescue agent. In this sense, virtual pheromones are used to represent the agent´s internal representation of the world. They can be repulsive or attractive and therefore useful for exploration, collision avoidance and world analysis. The project´s goal is to evaluate this approach suitability in the aforementioned competition´s context. To accomplish this, the authors have created a fully pheromone-based agent and inserted it in CyberRescue´s competition, evaluating its behavior by the contest´s rules. This approach yields excellent results in open maps, even when wall placement is complex. On the other hand, the agent´s behavior is unstable and limited when it has to cross narrow corridors to explore new areas and find the goal. In the competition´s context, it proves itself as being an excellent exploratory strategy with a very low collision rate, while allowing the agents to successfully complete a considerable amount of maps. This article gives an overview of the design and implementation processes, while evaluating each characteristic´s benefits and shortcomings.