Control strategies for heterogeneous, autonomous robot swarms

Having robots as reliable and robust mobile sensor platforms in unknown environments is getting more and more attractive. The control of each robot as a single machine is often complicated enough. But if there are more than one robots in a given scenario, the task get's even harder. The operators then do not only have to care about steering their robot, but they also have to cooperate with each other. In this paper we describe the results of a research project regarding control strategies for a group of heterogeneous, autonomous robots. The swarm receives orders from a central control station, that uses a Battle Management Language, which is abstract, but human readable. An abstract language postulates a certain degree of intelligence within each robot of the cooperation, because the orders are mostly more complex than simple moves from A to B. There is a command hierarchy within the swarm, but every robot implements its own control strategies, to fulfill the overall go al of the orders. The technical as well as the operational realizations are described and discussed mostly with the focus on the unmanned aerial robots.