Energy-time-efficient adaptive dispatching algorithms for ant-like robot systems

In this paper, we investigate energy-time-efficient dispatching methods for ant-like robots to cover an unmapped region effectively. These ant-like robots have very limited energy and sensor ability, making them practical and inexpensive to build. Our dispatching model was based on bio-inspired algorithms from an ant colony system. We assumed that all the ant-like robots start from their home starting point, the nest, and the region is composed of floor tiles that can be modelled as vertices in a graph. In this dispatching system, the ant-like robots leave pheromone on the tiles and use this information to cover the region. We developed and analyzed two different adaptive dispatching algorithms with different communication methods to the nest. We further compared these two adaptive dispatching algorithms with two non-adaptive methods. Extensive computer simulations validated the proposed adaptive algorithms, showing that they can dispatch ant-like mobile robots to cover an unmapped region with energy-time efficiency.