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Category: Robotics
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-5888-2.ch651
Dynamical Systems Approach for
Predator-Prey Robot Behavior Control via
Symbolic Dynamics Based Communication
1. INTRODUCTION
The study of complex systems (Badii & Politi, 1997;
Macau & Grebogi, 1999) has created a lot of research
interests especially due to its diverse applications in
science, engineering, management and biological sys-
tems. These exhibit emergent behavior that is neither
completely ordered and predictable, nor completely
random and unpredictable. It produces patterns and
hierarchy of structures which emerge due to its attractor
dynamics (Grassberger, 1991; Poon & Grebogi, 1995).
Artificial intelligence, adaptive networks, collective
intelligence, and chaos fall under this category. Out of
these, chaotic system is the area under investigation in
this work. Chaotic systems can be controlled through
the technique of chaos synchronization (Pecora &
Carroll, 1990). It involves the coupling of two cha-
otic systems so that both achieve identical dynamics
asymptotically with time. Such non-linear systems
have been effectively used in a plethora of engineering
and scientific applications (Maoyin, 2008; Fallahi &
Leung, 2010; Mukhopadhyay et al., 2010; Fan et al.,
2010; Banerjee et al., 2012).
An emergent area of robotics is based upon the
paradigm of behavior-based robotics and it deals with
an entirely different information flow structure than
that of the classical artificial intelligent systems. This
work presents an application of a nonlinear biological
system in the area of chaos navigation with mobile
robots and accomplishment of its control. The objec-
tive is to extend the phase synchronization of identical
unidirectional coupled chaotic food webs (Blasius &
Stone, 2000; Stone & He, 2007) in a robot foraging task.
Chaotic synchronization promotes cooperative task
achievement. Collaborative mobile robot exploration
is achieved through noise aided synchronization of a
two–wheeled mobile robot that follows the predator
– prey dynamics. Thus, a bio-inspired mobile robotic
design is proposed for the task of coverage of a work-
space that is completed when a specified portion of
the workspace is explored.
2. BACKGROUND
Robots are a complex dynamical system characterized
through statistical measures and mathematical expres-
sions describing the system dynamics. Cooperative
robots accomplish the goal of workspace coverage
faster than an atomic robot (Cao et al., 1997). Effec-
tive collision-free robot motion and coverage, planning
(Shiller & Gwo, 1991; Klomkam & Sooraksa, 2004;
Yang & Luo. 2004; Hazan, et. al, 2006; Willms & Yang,
2006; Fallahi & Leung, 2010; Volos & Kyprianidis,
2012), robustness of synchronous speeds against robot
and communication failures (Zang et al., 2006) are
important issues in robotics currently under research.
In order to execute cooperative task assignment, control
strategies must be formulated.
Over the past few years, research has been conducted
to propose methods that ensure a chaotic navigation of
the search space (Sekiguchi & Nakamura, 2001) based
on the chaotic features of sensitive dependence on ini-
tial conditions and topological transivity. Recently, a
dynamical perspective has paved its way into cognitive
science (Garson, 1996; Beer, 2000; Nehmzow, 2006;
Khansari-Zadeh & Billard, 2012). Such an approach
implies that the process of natural cognition is dynami-
Sumona Mukhopadhyay
University of Calgary, Canada
Henry Leung
University of Calgary, Canada