@article{Wilson_Pavlic_Kumar_Buffin_Pratt_Berman_14,
	author = {Sean Wilson and Theodore P. Pavlic and Ganesh P. Kumar and Aur\'{e}lie Buffin and Stephen C. Pratt and Spring Berman },
	title = {Design of ant-inspired stochastic control policies for collective transport by robotic swarms},
	journal = {Swarm Intelligence},
	year = {2014},
	volume = {8},
	pages = {303--327},
	number = {4},
	abstract = {In this paper, we present an approach to designing decentralized robot control policies 
        that mimic certain microscopic and macroscopic behaviors of ants performing collective transport tasks.
        In prior work, we used a stochastic hybrid system model to characterize the observed team dynamics of 
        ant group retrieval of a rigid load. We have also used macroscopic population dynamic models to design 
        enzyme-inspired stochastic control policies that allocate a robotic swarm around multiple boundaries 
        in a way that is robust to environmental variations. Here, we build on this prior work to synthesize 
        stochastic robot attachment–detachment policies for tasks in which a robotic swarm must achieve non-uniform 
        spatial distributions around multiple loads and transport them at a constant velocity. Three methods are 
        presented for designing robot control policies that replicate the steady-state distributions, transient dynamics, 
        and fluxes between states that we have observed in ant populations during group retrieval. The equilibrium 
        population matching method can be used to achieve a desired transport team composition as quickly as possible; 
        the transient matching method can control the transient population dynamics of the team while driving it to the 
        desired composition; and the rate matching method regulates the rates at which robots join and leave a load during 
        transport. We validate our model predictions in an agent-based simulation, verify that each controller design method
        produces successful transport of a load at a regulated velocity, and compare the advantages and disadvantages of each method.},
	OPTdoi = {10.1007/s11721-014-0100-8},
}