Swarm Robotics Simulators, Platforms and Applications Review
Swarm Robotics Simulators, Platforms and Applications Review
Review
Swarm Robotics: Simulators, Platforms and Applications Review
Cindy Calderón-Arce 1,† , Juan Carlos Brenes-Torres 2,† and Rebeca Solis-Ortega 1, *,†
1 School of Mathematics, Costa Rica Institute of Technology, Cartago 30101, Costa Rica; [email protected]
2 Mechatronics Academic Area, Costa Rica Institute of Technology, Cartago 30101, Costa Rica;
[email protected]
* Correspondence: [email protected]
† These authors contributed equally to this work.
Abstract: This paper presents an updated and broad review of swarm robotics research papers
regarding software, hardware, simulators and applications. The evolution from its concept to its
real-life implementation is presented. Swarm robotics analysis is focused on four aspects: conceptu-
alization, simulators, real-life robotics for swarm use, and applications. For simulators and robots,
a detailed comparison between existing resources is made. A summary of the most used swarm
robotics applications and behaviors is included.
1. Introduction
Swarm robotics, as a concept, appeared around three decades ago; since then, a large
amount of research on it has taken place. Beni and Wang, in their 1989 paper [1], were the
first to introduce the concept of swarm intelligence into the field of robotics. Although the
Citation: Calderón-Arce, C.; concept of swarm robotics dates back to the early 1990s, it was not until 2000 that great
Brenes-Torres, J.C.; Solis-Ortega, R. interest in research in this topic began to rise. Doringo et al. in [2] showed that trend in
Swarm Robotics: Simulators, swarm research, by analyzing how many times the phrase “swarm robotics” appeared in
Platforms and Applications Review. papers, both SCOPUS and Google Scholar.
Computation 2022, 10, 80. Swarm robotics have been researched for more than 20 years. During this time,
https://doi.org/10.3390/ software for simulating swarm behavior and real robotic swarms has been created, adapted
computation10060080 and tested in different situations. For this reason, most of the work related to swarm
Academic Editor: Yudong Zhang
robotics is considered to cover four main areas: (i) evolution of swarm robotics concept
and characteristics; (ii) software that can be used to simulate algorithms and/or behavior
Received: 9 April 2022 applicable to swarm robotics; (iii) real-life robots that can be used or are supposed to be
Accepted: 12 May 2022 used as a swarm; (iv) applications where swarm robotics have been used, either simulated
Published: 24 May 2022 or real.
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral This paper is organized as follows: Section 2 presents a definition of swarm robotics,
with regard to jurisdictional claims in its main objective, and its characteristics. In Section 3, software for simulating swarm
published maps and institutional affil- algorithms is presented. Section 4 summarizes some robot platforms that have been created
iations. or adapted to be used in real swarm applications. In Section 5, possible applications for
swarm robotics are displayed. Finally, the conclusions are presented in Section 6.
global behavior [5]. Generally, agents do not possess global data about the state of its world,
nor the task they are working on.
On the other hand, MRS consists of multiple robots sharing a workspace in order
to perform assigned tasks. These tasks can be difficult or impossible to accomplish for a
single robot [6]. There are several advantages of using MRS, such as an increasing ability to
resolve task complexity and improving performance, reliability and simplicity in design [7].
Swarm robotics (SR) is an area of knowledge within multi-robotics systems, and has
its origins in the application of Swarm Intelligence to the field of robotics [8]. Particu-
larly, SR studies how to design a large number of relatively simple physically embodied
agents. SR seeks a collective behavior based on local interactions among agents and their
environment [5,9].
In order to be considered a swarm and not only a MRS, a group of robots should have
most of the following characteristics:
• Autonomy: it is defined as the ability to perform planned tasks based on current state
and sensing, without human intervention [10]. Thus, all robots of the swarm must
have a real body and be able to physically interact with the world without outside
intervention [5,9].
• Homogeneity: each robot must have the same design, functionalities and share the
same control algorithm [11]. Homogeneity is usually wanted because heterogeneity
lowers the degree of redundancy, which may reduce robustness if it is not consid-
ered carefully [4]. However, it has become more common to find works that em-
ploy a restrained heterogeneous swarm. In these, robots are designed as a small
set of different agent types, that can be put together in order to accomplish a task
collaboratively [12].
• Large number: the formal definition of a swarm implies having “a large number” of
agents, however, a minimum group size is difficult to decide on and justify. For
instance, a swarm of 10 to 20 robots may seem enough for laboratory tests, but if
they are deployed in an area of several square kilometers, this number may seem
insignificant [9].
• Limited capabilities: a key idea in SR systems is to use relatively simple robots. Thereby,
robots might not be able to efficiently carry out tasks on their own, but they would
be highly efficient by cooperating with others [5]. As mentioned in [9], even though
robots must be simple, this does not impose any restrictions on the hardware or
software complexity of the robots. The simplicity of individual robots should not be
taken in absolute terms, but relative to the task.
• Communication and control schemes: two main approaches can be used to manage
communication and control of a robotic system: centralize and decentralize. Cen-
tralized schemes have a main entity which collects and synthesizes data from all
the agents and, in some occasions, tells them how they should operate on a global
level [4]. They have the advantage of offering direct control over each agent and
making it easy to predict the overall system behavior. On the other hand, decentral-
ized systems use distributed communication and control mechanisms [4]. Among
their advantages are the following: (i) It reduces delays and bottle necks associated
with centralized processing; (ii) It reduces failures associated with agent loss; (iii) It
naturally exploits parallelism.
The swarm algorithm and collective behavior should be effective enough to allow
scalability, robustness and flexibility of the system.
Scalability is accomplished when the system can operate under a wide range of group
sizes (from a small number to several thousand individuals or more) without decreasing
performance [4,9]. In [8] it is mentioned, as a good practice, to use local sensing and
communication to accomplish scalability [8].
Robustness is defined as fault tolerance and fail-safety [12]. The system should be able
to continue functioning even with the loss or malfunction of some robots. Robustness can
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be attributed to (i) redundancy in the system, in which any individual can be compensated
by another one, (ii) decentralized coordination and (iii) simplicity of the individuals [9].
Finally, flexibility refers to the ability of adapting to new, different and/or changing
requirements of the environment [8].
Even though SR use derives plenty of advantages, it is often difficult to design a
robot’s behavior in order to achieve the desired global performance [11]. For this reason,
simulation, modeling and learning approaches are used.
Simulation, where a virtual scenario and swarm are created, is used to analyze robot
capabilities (sensors and actuators) and programming algorithms. By replicating simula-
tion experiments, the swarm performance can be improved without run-time-consuming
experiments with real robots [11]. Since it is not always possible to build large groups
of physical robots, simulations are a good option to test swarm algorithms on a large
scale [5].
The next section presents some of the most used simulation software for swarm
robotics research.
Open-Source
Last Update
Windows
MacOS
Swarm
Linux
Free
Software/Feature Source (Accessed: 11 May 2022)
In addition, Dorigo et al. [2] comment that options related to materials, biohybrid
solutions and new ways of storing and transmitting energy could help address some of the
current issues related to the hardware of real robot swarms.
Therefore, synthetic data generation has become increasingly popular since it is faster
to generate by automatic computation [29]. Consequently, real robot experiments should
not be considered to validate collective behaviors in real-world applications, but it is useful
to test them against realistic noise patterns in sensors and actuators [14].
On the other hand, mixed reality can be a valuable tool for robotics research and
development. It establishes interactions between physical and virtual objects in physical
or virtual environments. Moreover, it could reduce the gap between simulation and real
implementation by an object combination, including robots, sensors and humans [32].
Introduction Commercially
Robot/Feature Developer Cost
Date Available
E-puck 2004 École Polytechnique X USD 1000
Fédérale de Lausanne
(EPFL)
Khepera IV 2015 K-Team (EPFL spin-off) X USD 3200
Kilobot 2010 Harvard University X USD 130
Swarmanoid:
2011 Future and Emerging -
footbot
Technologies (FET-OPEN)
project
USD 32
Colias 2014 University of Lincoln
(GBP 25)
USD 129
Mona 2017 University of Manchester
(GBP 100)
Psi Swarm 2016 University of York -
GRITSBot 2015 Georgia Tech USD 50 (parts)
Thymio 2011 Mobsya (EPFL spin-off) X USD 173
Mobile robots such as E-puck, Khepera and Kilobot have been widely popular among
swarm robotics researchers, appearing in publications across the globe and still present
nowadays. It should be noted that these robots share the feature of being commercially
available, which increases their accessibility to research groups.
E-pucks were developed by École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and are
differential drive robots with two stepper motors. Notably, they can perform odometry by
tracking step counts [33]. E-pucks features 8 infrared (IR) sensors, a color camera, which
can be used for obstacle detection, and some other sensors such as accelerometers and
microphones [34]. Inter-robot communication is achieved by using the IR sensors and
Bluetooth. Additionally, they are controlled by a dsPIC30 microcontroller [35]. An E-puck
robot is sold at a retail price of USD 1000 [36].
Khepera robots are notorious in academia, they are developed and sold by K-Team (an
EPFL spin-off). Kheperas have gone through several iterations, with Khepera IV being the
latest. It is a differential drive robot with two DC motors and several options for odometry:
magnetic encoders, accelerometer and gyroscope. Additionally, it presents a large array
of sensors to be used for obstacle detection, such as 12 IR sensors, 5 ultrasonic sensors,
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and a color camera [37]. Communication with other robots or with a base is achieved
by Bluetooth or WiFi [38]. Moreover, they present a control architecture with an ARM
Cortex-A8 processor and a dsPIC33 microcontroller [39]. Khepera IV robots have a price of
approximately USD 3200, with documentation and support available in [36].
The Kilobot robot represented a paradigm change in swarm robotics when introduced,
by opting for a fairly limited hardware structure at a very low cost. It was developed
by Harvard University and was promoted as being able to reach a swarm of a thousand
robots [40]. Each Kilobot uses one wide-angle IR sensor to detect obstacles and even
to detect or communicate to other robots [41,42]. Unlike most of the reviewed robots,
Kilobots are not differential drive robots with wheels, they have legs with vibrating mo-
tors for locomotion (slip-stick principle), which also limits their locomotion to flat even
surfaces [43,44]. Additionally, each robot is controlled by an Atmega328 microcontroller
and can be bought for USD 130 [36].
Project Swarmanoid presented a new swarm structure by developing several kinds
of mobile robots that collaborate towards a goal [45]. In this paper, the Footbot robot is
reviewed due to its similarity to the other robots under evaluation. It is a differential
drive robot that uses two motors to move two wheels and two tracks. Additionally, it has
an accelerometer and gyroscope for odometry. The Swarmanoid Footbot features a ring of
24 IR proximity sensors, 4 IR distance sensors in a rotating platform, and 2 cameras, all of
which can be used for obstacle detection. Furthermore, it features eight IR sensors at the
base and an RFID reader and communicates to other robots by using color LEDs or WiFi.
Footbot has an ARM 11 microprocessor and two microcontrollers. Finally, Swarmanoid was a
joint Future and Emerging Technologies (FET-OPEN) project led by Institut de Recherches
Interdisciplinaires et de Développements en Intelligence Artificielle—Université Libre
de Bruxelles. The cost has not been specified in the literature and the robots are not
commercially available.
The Colias robot is an effort from the University of Lincoln. It is a differential drive robot
with two motors, nine IR sensors for obstacle detection and inter robot communication, and
a light sensor [46,47]. Additionally, it is controlled by an Atmega168 and an Atmega-644
microcontroller. Notably, the reported cost is approximately USD 32, which is the lowest
among the reviewed robots [48].
University of Manchester’s Mona robot has a relatively low cost of USD 129, with
five IR sensors and several communication options (WiFi, XBee, and RF 2.4 GHz
transceiver) [49]. It is a differential drive robot with magnetic encoders for odometry
and an Atmega328 microcontroller [50].
Psi Swarm is a robot created by the University of York, with no commercial avail-
ability, nor price specified. It has a differential drive configuration, with optical encoders,
accelerometer, and gyroscope that can be used for odometry. Furthermore, its sensors suite
features eight IR sensors for obstacle detection, five IR base sensors, and a color sensor. It
has an ARM Cortex M3 microcontroller and Bluetooth or RF communication (with an RF
433 MHz transceiver) [51,52].
Georgia Tech have presented their Robotarium project, which uses their GRITSbot
robots. These robots are not meant to be commercialized, but rather to be used remotely
by researchers [53]. GRITSbot is a differential drive robot with stepper motors. Odome-
try is performed by tracking the step count and using an accelerometer and gyroscope.
Obstacle avoidance is achieved by the use of 6 IR sensors. Control is performed by an
ESP8266 board, as well as an Atmega168 and an Atmega328 microcontroller. Communi-
cation is documented to be conducted by WiFi and a RF 2.4 GHz transceiver. Finally,
each robot is documented to have a cost of USD 50 in parts [54].
The last reviewed robot, Thymio, was introduced in 2013 by Mobsya (an EPFL
spin-off). It is a differential drive robot intended for research in robotics and STEM
education [55,56]. It has seven IR sensors for obstacle detection and short-range inter-
robot communication. It also has two IR base sensors, an accelerometer, a microphone,
and a temperature sensor [57,58]. However, in its basic configuration, Thymio lacks
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some features needed for higher education in robot control and navigation [59]. Its
control architecture was not disclosed and it has a retail price of USD 173 [60].
Differential Drive
Microcontroller(s)
Radio Frequency
Accelerom./Gyro
Microprocessor
IR Short-range
Infrared (IR)
Microphone
Ultrasonic
Bluetooth
Encoders
Camera
Other
WiFi
Robot/Feature
E-puck X X X X X X X X
Khepera IV X X X X X X X X X X X
Kilobot X X X
Swarmanoid X X X X X X X
Colias X X X X
Mona X X X X X X X
Psi Swarm X X X X X X X
GRITSBot X X X X X X X
Thymio X X X X X
5.1. Navigation
Navigation in swarm robotics refers to the scenarios where a robot, with limited
sensing and localization capabilities, is able to reach a target in an unknown location with
the help of other robots [11].
Cardona and Calderon in [61] develop research on swarm robotics navigation aimed
at victim detection. The navigation strategy is based on the application of particle swarm
theory, where the attraction and repulsion forces of swarm particle systems are used to
avoid obstacles, keep the swarm compact, and navigate to a target location. Once an
agent finds a victim, it separates from the main swarm by creating a sub-swarm. The
sub-swarm agents use a modified rendezvous consensus algorithm to perform formation
control around the victim. This research was simulated using Matlab and the Virtual Robot
Experimentation Platform (V-Rep) software; they conducted experiments using 23 agents
(drones) and 6 victims distributed in five places.
Nedjah and Luneque in [62] propose a collective strategy for swarm navigation in
scenarios with obstacles and in the presence of two and four clusters of robots. The strategy
is based on wave algorithms and is achieved following a sequence composed of recruitment,
alignment, and movement subtasks. The evaluation of its approach was performed by
simulations using V-Rep, and the tests demonstrate the effectiveness of the method.
5.2. Foraging
In SR, foraging refers to finding items scattered in environments and bringing them
back to a specific area called the “nest” [11].
Talamali et al. in [63] propose a collective foraging system based on virtual pheromones.
It was tested both as a computer simulation and with 200 real robots. The physics-based
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simulations were conducted with ARGoS. For the real swarm, an augmented reality for
kilobot software (ARK) was used in order to simulate the pheromone. The results showed
that simple behaviors generally reduce the impact of the reality gap and preserve consistent
dynamics in reality.
Castello et al. in [64] present a division of labor algorithm for a simple foraging task
that acts to maintain a target amount of food at the nest despite consumption rates that
vary over time. Its algorithm, the adaptive response threshold model (ARTM), showed
to be efficient in achieving adaptive workload distribution for a small-sized robot swarm.
ARTM also reduces a common problem of real robots: the duration of collisions among
them. The experiments were carried out both in simulation and with a real swarm. For the
simulation, a multi-robot simulation library STAGE was used. For the physic swarm, they
used five e-pucks.
Foraging behavior was used to validate the swarm performance of Kilobot robots. In
this scenario, one robot was assigned the “food” role and another—the “nest” role. Next,
the rest of the robots try to reach the food and take it to the nest. Some robots may assume
the “beacon” role to help others reach food and nest easily. In [41], a swarm of 100 Kilobots
showed to be capable of such collective behavior.
5.3. Exploration
Exploration in SR systems refers to the collective behavior in which robots cooperate to
explore an environment in order to accomplish some tasks such as monitoring, surveillance,
space coverage, and others [14].
Duarte et al. in [65] propose the use of swarm robotics systems to carry out marine
environmental monitoring missions, focusing on the control of temperature. They conduct
a simulation-based evaluation of the robot’s performance over large areas and with large
swarm sizes. Moreover, they implemented their proposal in a real aquatic swarm composed
of eight units. The results showed that the use of swarm systems is useful in environmental
monitoring tasks that involve covering areas.
Solis and Calderón in [66] present a scheme to solve the problem to explore, cover, and
find paths in dangerous environments. The proposal consisted of three phases: exploration,
mapping, and path planning. For the first phase, a cellular automata algorithm along
with a stigmergy approach for the communication between the agents was used. In the
second phase, the explored cell was stored in order to create a grid map. Finally, in the
path planning phase, a multiobjective problem was used to minimize distance and danger,
through a graph obtained by an adapted RRG, and a genetic algorithm known as modified
NSGA-II. The simulation was carried out with the Processing software.
5.4. Aggregation
Aggregation is one of the most fundamental swarm behaviors frequently observed in
nature. It refers to the task in which each individual positions themselves close enough to
each other in one specific place [12].
Amjadi et al. in [67] propose a method that combines the BEECLUST algorithm with
pheromone-following behavior to solve the problem of finding the source of a chemical
leakage and clean the contaminated area. They conducted experiments with a simulated
model of a Mona robot in the Webots software. The effects of population size and robot
speed on the ability of the swarm in a decontamination task were analyzed. The results
showed the feasibility of deploying robotic swarms in an exploration and cleaning task in
an extreme environment.
In this same context, but with real-life robots, Colias robots were validated by im-
plementing BEECLUST behavior with swarm sizes from 5 to 20 robots. Robots showed a
coherent response with aggregation characteristics. Nonetheless, aggregation decreased in
time as the number of robots increased [46,47].
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It is also important to mention that most of the time, the swarm size depends on
the number of robots that companies or research agencies have in stock for arbitrary
reasons [31], and robots may not be intended for all swarm applications.
6. Discussion
As it has been shown, swarm robotics have great potential to solve (or improve) a large
number of problems and situations. However, applying SR in real-life environments is
currently limited by existing technology: environment interaction, noise, sensors, actuators,
infrastructure-based network, security protocols, energy, components degradation, and
failures, as detailed in Section 3.2.
Nonetheless, real swarm robotics implementations are important and necessary to
test and suggest real solution to real problems. Simulations and virtual reality represent a
previous step on the way to reality.
Thus, many experiments that have been carried out so far can be classified into two
types: (i) simulations of algorithms and (ii) creation and/or use of existing mobile robots in
controlled environments.
For simulations, as presented in Section 3.1, there is specialized software for SR,
general robotics simulators, and even software libraries that can be adapted for swarm
research. Choosing “the best” among them will depend on the corresponding research goal.
If the main purpose is to test or design a robot for a swarm, taking into account its
locomotion, sensors, and physics, then ODE, MSRS, and CoppeliaSim present the most
suitable features. These programs allow to simulate robot models as similar to real life as
possible. However, they were not created to simulate collective swarm behaviors, but some
modifications can be made to use them for this purpose.
Similarly, Webots offers the possibility of using different existing robot models. It
presents an appropriate environment for testing collective robot behaviors, although it is
not easily scalable.
On the other hand, if the aim is to test swarm robotics algorithms, software such as
Stage, Gazebo, and ARGoS may seem more suitable. These three programs are among the
most used when behavior simulation is the main focus. They offer a balance between the
simulation of algorithms and the physics of robots. While many of them can be used to
simulate most swarm applications, Stage offers the best performance for swarms with a
large number of agents (up to 100,000).
Despite not being created for swarm robotics research, Bio-PEPA software can be
adapted to simulate the biological behaviors of general swarms.
There is a wide variety of real-life swarm robotic platforms. The spectrum of possibili-
ties range from inexpensive and limited robot agents to commercial robots full of resources.
However, there is no rule for defining the right swarm size, most of them depend on the
creators’ or developers’ possibilities and sponsors.
For example, robots such as Kilobot, Thymio, Mona, and Colias have been offered as
an economic option. Nevertheless, they have the downside of presenting some limited
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features. In practice, this may cause some collective behaviors to not be implemented or to
need to rely on external hardware (such as cameras, screens, and projectors).
It can be noted, based on the list of features presented in Section 4, that Khepera IV
robots have the larger sensor and processing suite. Thus, this robot appears in a broad
range of education and research publications, not limited to swarm robotics. In contrast,
they are the most expensive robot platform among the ones reviewed, which limits the
ability to scale up the swarm size.
The selection of the most suitable robot for real testing will depend on (i) economic
aspects, (ii) the amount and type of sensors, and (iii) the communication type needed for a
specific swarm application.
7. Conclusions
Swarm robotics combines Swarm Intelligence with Multi-Robot Systems. In order
to be considered a swarm, a group of robots should have autonomy, homogeneity, large
number, limited capabilities, and a specific communication and control scheme. In most
cases, swarms of robots are designed and defined for a specific behavior or application.
Simulation and modeling are useful tools to approach or deepen the designs and
behaviors of robots. In general, robot simulators are developed with a specific objective,
for that reason, most of the time, it is not possible to compare them. Each researcher must
take into account the specific characteristics of each software, and choose the one whose
features best suit their needs.
Virtual reality is a possible middle step between simulation and reality in robotics
research. Even though it is not possible to simulate all aspects of reality, these kinds of
simulations are often used to allow having a glimpse of how a swarm will behave in real
life. These types of experiments have been increasing, mainly because they are faster to
generate and less expensive and time-consuming.
However, working and experimenting with real-life robots is a necessary stage to-
wards evolving the research around the subject. Nowadays, robots are developed with
different intentions, for instance, they might focus on education or industrial produc-
tion. When robots are intended for swarm robotics research, usually, they are validated
by creating a robotic swarm with a known behavior, and then the collective response
is tracked.
Most real robot experiments presented in the literature were performed in controlled
environments, far from the scenarios which they are assumed to recreate. This shows that
there are still many open problems around the subject. Only further research will help in
taking swarm robotics to next level.
This review presents references to compare and choice software, simulators, applica-
tions, behaviors, and robots to explore and research swarm robotics. Moreover, it provides
options for transitioning from simulations to real swarm robotic implementations.
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