A Kangaroo inspired heterogeneous swarm of mobile robots with global network integrity for fast deployment and exploration in large scale structured environments

A heterogeneous robotic swarm for fast deployment and exploration in large scale structured environments is addressed in this paper. The swarm consists of a marsupial robot that is capable of carrying the small robots for fast deployment and loading the small robots for fast displacement. The heterogeneous robotic swarm is governed by a hierarchical distributed control including distributed node control for behavioural control and connectivity maintenance, and distributed connectivity control for network expansion and global network integrity. We illustrate systematic characteristics and potential applications of the heterogeneous robotic swarm compared to the homogeneous robotic swarm through simulation results.