Back to Full Curriculum
RB-EL3Semester 74 (3-0-2)Elective

Swarm Intelligence & Multi-Robot Systems

Biological inspiration (ants, bees, birds, fish schooling), Boids model (separation, alignment, cohesion), Reynolds rules and flocking behavior, Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO: velocity update, inertia weight), Ant...

Syllabus

01

Unit 1: Swarm Intelligence Foundations

Biological inspiration (ants, bees, birds, fish schooling), Boids model (separation, alignment, cohesion), Reynolds rules and flocking behavior, Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO: velocity update, inertia weight), Ant Colony Optimization (ACO: pheromone trails, evaporation), Artificial Bee Colony (ABC), Swarm stability analysis.

02

Unit 2: Multi-Robot Communication and Coordination

Communication topologies (centralized, decentralized, hybrid), Consensus algorithms (average, leader election), Task allocation (CBBA, auction-based), Formation control (virtual structures, leader-follower), Potential field methods (artificial potentials, collision avoidance), Graph-theoretic approaches (Riemannian manifolds).

03

Unit 3: Swarm Robotics Algorithms

Coverage control (Voronoi partitions, Lloyd algorithm), Foraging and patrolling strategies, Flocking with obstacles, Self-assembly and shape formation, Density control and deployment, Scalable coordination (local interactions, emergent behavior), Scalability analysis (communication overhead, convergence time).

04

Unit 4: Distributed Estimation and Mapping

Multi-robot SLAM (centralized, decentralized, DDF-SLAM), Data association (JPDDA, Murty's algorithm), Cooperative localization (EKF/UKF fusion), Relative pose estimation (anchor nodes), Graph SLAM optimization (pose graph, factor graphs), Outlier rejection and robust estimation.

05

Unit 5: Advanced Topics and Applications

Heterogeneity in swarms (specialized roles), Fault tolerance and resilience, Learning in multi-agent systems (MARL, QMIX), Swarm reinforcement learning, Real-world applications (search-rescue, agriculture, warehouse automation), Hardware platforms (Khepera, Kilobot, TurtleBot swarm), Standardization (ROS2 multi-robot, MQTT/IoT protocols).