A swarm of robots using RFID tags for synchronization and cooperation

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to show how a swarm of robots can cooperate to achieve a common task, in a totally distributed and autonomous way, by exploiting powerful clues contained in some devices that are distributed in the environment. This system exploits a coordination mechanism that is twofold, using radio frequency identification (RFID) tags for spatial coordination, and wireless robot-to-robot communication for the temporal and semantic synchronization. Design/methodology/approach: Progress in the pervasive computing field has led to the distribution of knowledge and computational power in the environment, rather than condensing it in a single, powerful entity. This vision of ambient intelligence is supported by the interchange of information between physically sparse agents cooperating to achieve a common goal. An emerging method for this kind of collaboration considers the agents as insects in a swarm, having the possibility of communicating directly or indirectly with each other. The goal is to fulfill a common task, showing that a collaborative behavior can be useful in the real world. The paper focuses on a technique for the coordination of swarm-robots with low capabilities, driven by instructions learned from RFID tags used as distributed pervasive memories. These robots exploit ubiquitous computing to regroup in a synchronization area, make a formation in space, coordinate with team-mates in the same zone, and finally complete a cooperative task. The algorithm is validated through a simulation environment, showing its applicability and performance, before the real implementation on Roomba-like robots. Findings: The goal of the research is to prove the feasibility of such a novel approach. It is observed that a swarm of robots can achieve a good degree of autonomous cooperation without a central infrastructure or global network, carrying out a goal in a fair time. Originality/value: The value is given by the benefits of splitting the synchronization semantics into two levels: space, by exploiting RFID landmarks; and time, by exploiting wireless short-range communication. RFID tags are used to distribute computational power and actively interact with the surrounding areas, allowing to learn and modify the state of the environment. Robot-to-robot communication, instead, is used for providing timing and semantic information. In the proposal, this augmented environment is used to allow a good level of coordination among robots, both in time and space, with the aim of building a cooperative system. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.