Orbital Construction: Swarms of Simple Robots Building Enclosures

Inspired by the use of template pheromones in insect collective construction, we investigate the use of a scalar field to guide the formation of two-dimensional enclosures by swarms of simple robots. The scalar field, in combination with a fixed threshold, dictates the desired shape as a contour of the scalar field. The robots require an ability to measure the scalar field at three points, which can be achieved in practise by painting (or projecting) the scalar field onto the robots' work surface and using simple photosensitive elements to detect it (e.g. the same sensors used for line following). The robots would also require a camera to sense a nearby object on either the left or right. We present some initial results in a simulation environment.