Dr Hugo Sardinha
This work provides an overview of the main research trends on the topic of multi-robot coordination and swarms robotics. It starts by reviewing differences between the main approaches found in the literature, and pinpoint their advantages and disadvantages. The research component focuses on applying Swarm Intelligence techniques to the problem of multi unmanned air vehicles (UAV) coordination. By doing so, it addresses the gap that exists concerning integrated frameworks. It proposes a solution for this issue that enables the realization of UAV swarms in ROS. The generic technique will focus on a flocking behaviour, where each UAV will, by sharing their state to their neighbours, act on a local level and through high-level rule-based control system, contribute to an emergent behaviour of the group. In this aspect, this work will also make a contribution by employing a quantitative metric to measure the overall performance of the UAV swarm.
