Prototyping and Simulation of Robot Group Intelligence using Kohonen Networks.

Intelligent agents such as robots can form ad hoc networks and replace human being in many dangerous scenarios such as a complicated disaster relief site. This project prototypes and builds a computer simulator to simulate robot kinetics, unsupervised learning using Kohonen networks, as well as group intelligence when an ad hoc network is formed. Each robot is modeled using an object with a simple set of attributes and methods that define its internal states and possible actions it may take under certain circumstances. As the result, simple, reliable, and affordable robots can be deployed to form the network. The simulator simulates a group of robots as an unsupervised learning unit and tests the learning results under scenarios with different complexities. The simulation results show that a group of robots could demonstrate highly collaborative behavior on a complex terrain. This study could potentially provide a software simulation platform for testing individual and group capability of robots before the design process and manufacturing of robots. Therefore, results of the project have the potential to reduce the cost and improve the efficiency of robot design and building.