Towards Self-Healing Swarm Robotic Systems Inspired by Granuloma Formation

Abstract

Granuloma is a medical term for a ball-like collection of immune cells that attempts to remove foreign substances from a host organism. This response is a special type of inflammatory reaction common to a wide variety of diseases. Granulomas are an organised collection of macrophages, whose formation involves the stimulation of macrophages as well as T-Cells. Fault tolerance in swarm robotic systems is essential to the continued operation of swarm robotic systems. Under certain conditions, a failing robot can have a detrimental effect on the overall swarm behaviour, causing stagnation in the swarm and affecting its ability to undertake its task. Our study is concerned specifically with modelling the trafficking of macrophages and T-cells in the development of granuloma formation, and using that as a basis to create a self-healing swarm robotic system, in the context of power system failure.