Local and long-range interactions for distributed control of a group of robots

In this paper we present a distributed control scheme for a group of cooperating roving robots. It is based on the model introduced by Vicsek [1], which models the kinetics of self-propelled particles, able to undergo a phase transition from a disordered state to an ordered state, involving a net transport phenomenon. We examine the case in which the noise term is not zero and provide a simple explanation for this case. Moreover, the properties of small-world topology are considered in order to include long-range connections between the robots. This leads to an improvement of system performance in presence of noise. Finally, a suitable strategy based on this model to control exploration and transport is introduced.