Hiroaki Fukushima

Opening New Frontiers through Advancements in Swarm Robotics

Scientists have been fascinated by swarm behavior for decades, though it originated in the natural world. It is still incredible to think of the complexities of an ant colony, or the accurate migration patterns that birds or fish exhibit. More recently, there has been a growing trend to adapt these patterns to machines, especially robots. Dr. Fukushima has made swarm robotics his major field of research. He aim for his research to contribute to major societal applications across various fields.

The reason why this field has been garnering attention is that recent advancements in technology have completely transformed what a swarm of robots is able to accomplish. The trend has moved from centralization to decentralization. Currently, centralized algorithms are used to control multiple robots in most cases. In drone shows, for example, target trajectories of all drones are determined in advance, so that the swarm of drones generate animations given beforehand. However, in applications where target trajectories or deployment of robots need to be decided in real time in response to circumstances, such centralized algorithms become increasingly difficult to apply due to computational and communication loads. This is because in centralized algorithms, trajectories of all robots are decided on one central computer based on the information collected from all robots, and then sent to each robot through wireless communication. Looking back on birds and fish, they obviously are not given any target swarm shape. They decide their own trajectories based on the local information such as the positions and velocities of neighbors, which results in the generation of various shapes of swarms. In that sense, they use a decentralized algorithm. Decentralization makes control algorithms of robotic swarms scalable. In other words, the total number of the robots has little effect on the computational and communication loads, since movements of each robot are only affected by their neighbors.

Dr. Fukushima currently studies navigation algorithms of groups of robots that target a point in areas filled with obstacles. In order to move robots through obstacle environments, the shape of the swarm needs to be changed, as to avoid getting stuck or colliding in narrow spaces. Decentralization is necessary to achieve this in real time. One immediate practical application of such decentralized navigation algorithms that comes to mind is transportation, which can range from industrial applications (e.g. in factories) to the provision of medical supplies in a disaster area. Indeed, the extreme environments are where the field of swarm robotics has the greatest potential. In other words, if robot swarms can operate in such environments, they will reduce human risk and save lives. Application of robot swarms can include the aforementioned transportation, but also demining, search and rescue, sensing (e.g. of vital signs) as well as cleaning up toxic spills. Coming up with solutions for these applications, which take place in inherently unstable and unpredictable environments, is exactly what Dr. Fukushima is working on as he continues his research. Without a doubt, swarm robotics is another field of engineering with profound real-world potential.