Safety and Security in Multiagent Systems - Research Results from 2004-2006

This paper is concerned with assuring the safety of a swarm of agents (simulated robots). Such behavioral assurance is provided with the physics method called kinetic theory. Kinetic theory formulas are used to predict the macroscopic behavior of a simulated swarm of individually controlled agents. Kinetic theory is also the method for controlling the agents. In particular, the agents behave like particles in a moving gas. The coverage task addressed here involves a dynamic search through a bounded region, while avoiding multiple large obstacles, such as buildings. In the case of limited sensors and communication, maintaining spatial coverage – especially after passing the obstacles – is a challenging problem. Our kinetic theory solution simulates a gas-like swarm motion, which provides excellent coverage. Finally, experimental results are presented that determine how well the macroscopic-level theory, mentioned above, predicts simulated swarm behavior on this task.