LIVS: Local Interaction via Virtual Stigmergy coordination in distributed search and collective cleanup

Distributed coordination is critical for a multi-robot system in hazardous waste cleanup under a dynamic environment. To achieve higher efficiency as well as robustness, a bio-inspired local interaction via virtual stigmergy (LIVS) coordination approach is proposed in this paper. This new meta-heuristic integrates two mechanisms - stigmergy-based autocatalytic mechanism and particle swarm optimization cognitive capabilities through local interaction - into one efficient approach. The proposed LIVS algorithm has been implemented on both self-developed simulator and embodied robot simulator Player/Stage in a searching task. The simulation results demonstrate the feasibility, robustness, and scalability of the methods with real-world constraints.