Tracking and Mapping of Spatiotemporal Quantities Using Unicellular Swarm Intelligence

The book discusses new algorithms capable of
searching for, tracking, mapping and providing a visualization of invisible
substances. It reports on the realization of a bacterium-inspired robotic
controller that can be used by an agent to search for any environmental spatial
function such as temperature or pollution. Using the parameters of a
mathematical model, the book shows that it is possible to control the
exploration, exploitation and sensitivity of the agent. This feature sets the
work apart from the usual method of applying the bacterium behavior to robotic
agents. The book also discusses how a computationally tractable multi-agent
robotic controller was developed and used to track as well as provide a visual
map of a spatio-temporal distribution of a substance. On the one hand, this
book provides biologists and ecologists with a basis to perform simulations
related to how individual organisms respond to spatio-temporal factors in their
environment as well as predict and analyze the behavior of organisms at a
population level. On the other hand, it offers robotic engineers practical and
fresh insights into the development of computationally tractable algorithms for
spatial exploratory and mapping robots. It also allows a more general audience
to gain an understanding of the design of computational intelligence algorithms
for autonomous physical systems.