Process-Oriented Subsumption Architectures in Swarm Robotic Systems

Previous work has demonstrated the feasibility of using process-oriented programming to implement simple subsumption architectures for robot control. However, the utility and scalability of process-based subsumption architectures for more complex tasks and those involving multiple robots has not been proven. We report our experience of applying these techniques to the implementation of a standard foraging problem in swarm robotics, using occam-π to implement a subsumption control system. Through building a system with a realistic level of complexity, we have discovered both advantages and disadvantages to the process-oriented subsumption approach for larger robot control systems.