Print Email Facebook Twitter Fundamentals For An Autonomous Zebro Swarm Title Fundamentals For An Autonomous Zebro Swarm Author Ceelen, Marcel (TU Delft Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering) van der Geer, C.J. (TU Delft Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering) Rouwen, Floris (TU Delft Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering) Seuren, Stijn (TU Delft Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering) Contributor Verhoeven, Chris (mentor) Delgado Lopes, Gabriel (graduation committee) Degree granting institution Delft University of Technology Programme Mechanical Engineering Project Zebro Project Date 2015-01-13 Abstract In this thesis, a swarm is defined as:”A swarm is a large number of homogenous, unsophisticated agents that interact locallyamong themselves and their environment, without any central control or management toyield a global behaviour to emerge.”The bigger perspective is to have the units within a swarm operate for a potentially infinite amountof time, thus making algorithms and energy use as effective as possible. The research is split up indifferent sections: sensors, communication and behaviour. The behaviour is split again: individualbehaviour, anti collision behaviour and swarming behaviour.The research on the sensors and communication points out that the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)sensor is the most suitable for an autonomous Zebro Swarm. BLE can be used to transfer data as wellas serve as a range sensor. As a communication device, BLE offers the ability to advertise data an hasa range of 50 meters which is sufficient for application in a swarm. As a sensor, BLE offers fairlyaccurate measurements in distances below 1 meter. Due to the properties of radio signal strength andthe always present radio frequency noise, the accuracy decreased with increasing distances.The individual behaviour aims at exploring as much area as possible, with the amount of energyavailable. The energy use therefore has to be minimised and the explored area maximised. Sincelittle is known on the energy use, this is assumed constant. Maximising area, however, has somekey elements. The first is to keep moving; standing still results in energy use without exploring newterrain. The second is to make only gentle turns; the rotational centre must be outside of the detectiondistance. When this centre lies inside of the detection distance, the inner turn will cover area for alonger period making the turn ineffective.The anti collision behaviour should prevent units from making physical contact. By using a contactlesssensor an approaching collision can be detected. Changing the parameters of the movementof the units at the moment they enclose more than a certain value prevents the collision.The anti separation behaviour should prevent units from separating from eachother. This can bedone by making units turn 180 degrees once the relative distance reaches a certain limit. The turningon a certain limit is a simple algorithm and thus requires little processing power.Apart from the anti collision behaviour and the anti separation behaviour, there is another approachto deal with these behaviours. Since the units are able to communicate with each other, they can alsoadvertise their location to other units. There are several methods for a unit to acquire their location.These methods are divided in approximate and exact location estimation methods. The Trial and Errormethod is placed in the first category, the exact location estimation methods are: Time Based, InternalReference, External Reference and Radar. The External Reference method is considered the mostapplicable of these methods since it is relatively accurate, simple and provides a direct location. Subject SwarmZebroFundamentalsBluetooth Low EnergyV-rep To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:99075393-3f25-4440-bde8-853f45ac46d0 Part of collection Student theses Document type bachelor thesis Rights © 2015 Marcel Ceelen, C.J. van der Geer, Floris Rouwen, Stijn Seuren Files PDF Fundamentals_For_An_Auton ... _Swarm.pdf 8.91 MB PDF Paper_Fundamentals_For_An ... _Swarm.pdf 205.54 KB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:99075393-3f25-4440-bde8-853f45ac46d0/datastream/OBJ1/view