Swarming-based mobile target following using limited-capability mobile mini-robots

Locating and tracking mobile objects or targets using dynamically assigned multi-robot teams operating within an unknown or partially-known environment is an important problem in many applications of autonomous systems. Several approaches such as CMOMMT and pursuit-evasion games have been proposed to address this problem. However, each of these techniques requires specific sensors and/or considerable computational capabilities on each robot. In this paper, we consider the problem of locating and following mobile targets in an unknown environment, but only using inexpensive mini-robots with limited computation capabilities and less-sophisticated sensors. Our proposed technique is inspired by the swarming behavior observed in social insects such as ants when their nest is migrated to a different region, or when a food source they are traveling to is obstructed. We present detailed empirical analyzes of our proposed algorithm for mobile target following using a realistic model of e-puck robots within the Webots robot simulator. Our results show that our mobile target following mechanism enables limited-capability pursuer robots to successfully follow mobile targets under different operational and environment conditions.