Emulating Heterogeneity of Individuals and Visualizing Its Influence on Ant Swarm Migration

Robot swarm can be given with different functions such as ground cruising, wall climbing, and each robot is implemented with a choice from such functions. Regarding ground mobility, findings on ant swarm in biology indicate that Temnothorax albipennis ant swarm including many immobile individuals accomplishes efficient migration. Our previous work revealed that 60% of active population is enough to achieve such goal and the conclusion is consistent with field studies of biologists. However, the impacts of active population ratio (active ratio) rather than species-specific elements have not been clear enough yet. Here, hypothesizing that efficient swarm migration could be generated by lowering active ratio, we removed species-specific elements from simulation and challenged particle swarm optimization (PSO) to emulate the migration and visualize global status of the swarm with simple parameter configurations. Our statistical analysis shows that the performance simulation outcomes of the algorithm are equivalent between each active-ratios of 60% and 100%. Heterogeneity of ground mobility of individuals has not put any negative impacts on efficient swarm migration. Statistical visualization of the outcomes provides the basis for evaluation of global status of swarm migration and it can lead to exploration of robot swarm migration involving functional heterogeneity of ground mobility.