Automated Guidance of Collective Movement in a Multi-Agent Model of Physarum polycephalum

TL;DR

This paper presents a closed-loop guidance method for a multi-agent Physarum polycephalum model using attractant and repellent stimuli, showing repellent guidance is faster and more accurate for navigating complex paths.

Contribution

It introduces a novel automated guidance technique employing a feedback mechanism with stimuli, enhancing control of collective movement in a slime mould-inspired multi-agent system.

Findings

Repellent stimuli guidance outperforms attractant guidance in speed and accuracy.

The method effectively navigates complex, obstacle-rich environments.

Insights into hybridising unconventional and classical computing methods.

Abstract

Collective movement occurs in living systems where the simple movements of individual members of a pop- ulation are combined to generate movement of the collective as a whole, displaying complex dynamics which cannot be found in the component parts themselves. The plasmodium stage of slime mould Physarum polycephalum displays complex amoeboid movement during its foraging and hazard avoidance and its movement can be influenced by the spatial placement of attractant and repellent stimuli. Slime mould is attractive to robotics due to its simple component parts and the distributed nature of its control and locomotion mechanisms. We investigate methods of automated guidance of a multi-agent swarm collective along a pre-defined path to a goal location. We demonstrate a closed-loop feedback mechanism using attractant and repellent stimuli. We find that guidance by repellent stimuli (a light illumination mask) provides faster and more accurate guidance than attractant sources, which exhibit overshooting phenomena at path turns. The method allows traversal of convoluted arenas with challenging obstacles and provides an insight into how unconven- tional computing substrates may be hybridised with classical computing methods to take advantage of the benefits of both approaches.