This updated book provides an introduction to Swarm Robotics, which is the application of methods from swarm intelligence to robotics. The author presents methods that allow readers to understand how to design large-scale robot systems by going through many example scenarios on topics such as aggregation, coordinated motion (flocking), task allocation, self-assembly, collective construction, and environmental monitoring. The author explains the methodology behind building multiple, simple robots and how the complexity emerges from the multiple interactions between these robots such that they are able to solve difficult tasks. The book can be used as a short textbook for specialized courses or as an introduction to Swarm Robotics for graduate students, researchers, and professionals who want a concise introduction to the field. New topics to this edition include human-swarm interaction, energy efficiency in field swarm robotics, and water-surface-vehicle swarms, among other topics.
Introduction to Swarm Robotics.- Short Introduction to Robotics.- Short
Journey Through Nearly Everything.- Scenarios of Swarm Robotics.- Modeling
Swarm Systems and Formal Design Methods.- Collective Decision-Making.- Case
Study: Adaptive Aggregation.- References.- Index.
Heiko Hamann has been a professor for Cyber-physical Systems at the University of Konstanz, Germany and a member of the "Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour" in Konstanz in 2022. Before he was a professor at the University of Luebeck and the University of Paderborn (both Germany). His main research interests are swarm robotics, bio-hybrid systems, evolutionary robotics, and modeling of complex systems. He is developing innovative methods to govern the ever-increasing complexity of engineered systems using novel applications of tools from physics, mathematics, chemistry, and biology. He has taught courses on swarm robotics, mobile robotics, and evolutionary robotics for more than ten years. With more than 130 peer-reviewed publications at international conferences and international journals he is a well-recognized researcher in swarm robotics and related fields. He enjoys working in multi-disciplinary teams with ethologists, plant biologists, architects, and psychologists. Heiko Hamann is editor-in-chief of the Swarm Intelligence Journal since 2023.
