A Swarm Intelligence Based Approach to the Mine Detection Problem
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Rochester Institute of Technology RIT Scholar Works Theses 12-1-2004 A swarm intelligence based approach to the mine detection problem Vignesh Munirajan Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.rit.edu/theses Recommended Citation Munirajan, Vignesh, "A swarm intelligence based approach to the mine detection problem" (2004). Thesis. Rochester Institute of Technology. Accessed from This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by RIT Scholar Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses by an authorized administrator of RIT Scholar Works. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A SWARM INTELLIGENCE BASED APPROACH TO THE MINE DETECTION PROBLEM By VIGNESH KUMAR MUNIRAJAN Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Rochester Institute of Technology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE IN ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING Approved by Thesis Advisor Dr. Ferat Sahin Thesis Committee Dr. Wayne Walter Thesis Committee Dr. Daniel Phillips Department Head Dr. Robert Bowman ROCHESTER INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY KATE GLEASON COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING, ROCHESTER, NEW YORK DECEMBER 2004 THESIS RELEASE PERMISSON DEPARTMENRT OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING ROCHESTER INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY ROCHESTER, NEW YORK Thesis Title A Swarm Intelligence Approach to the Mine Detection Problem Author Vignesh Kumar Munirajan The Wallace Memorial Library has unconditional authority to release or reproduce part or whole of this thesis at any forum. I (Vignesh Kumar Munirajan) however deny private use of this document with a commercial intent. Author's Signature Date Acknowledgements This work is a result of efforts made by a lot of people who either directly or indirectly participated in its creation. My sincere gratitude goes to the Multi Agent Bio-Robotics Lab (MABL), a research wing under the Department of Electrical Engineering, Rochester Institute of Technology. Dr. Ferat Sahin of the MABL deserves the first and foremost credit in the evolution of this work. I would like to specially thank him for providing the required financial support for myself and for the needs this work had. I am highly thankful to him for providing me with a research assistantship and enabling me take up and complete this work. Most of all a special thanks goes to his knowledge and motivation that he provided me with to carry ahead and complete this work successfully. The Department of Electrical Engineering played a pivotal role in providing me the required infrastructure and support to carry out my research and produce successful results. This has been a very successful and productive period of my life, the virtues of which I expect to carry on all along my life. My thanks to our former Head of the Department Dr. Madhu Swaminathan and the present Head of the Department, Dr. Robert Bowman for being a part ofthe personalities to have supported the work. I would also thank the faculty and staff members of the Electrical engineering Department for their involvement in their success of the work. My sincere thanks also to Dr. Sohail Dianat, Dr. Daniel Phillips, Dr. Raghuveer Rao, Dr. Wayne Walter and Dr. Jason Tillett for guiding me and encouraging me at most of my corner stones. My special gratitude goes to Mr. Kenneth Snyder, the facilities manager and Mr. James Stafano, the systems administrator for providing me with the required infrastructure and help in executing this task successfully. My thanks also to the staff members like Mrs. Florence Layton, Mrs. Patricia Vicari and Mrs. Jill Lewis. I should also be thanking my colleges, friends and family for their responsibilities in enabling me to succeed in this work. Accomplishments Conference publication resultingform the work: [1] Vignesh Kumar M, Ferat Sahin, "A Swarm Intelligence based approach to the Mine Detection problem", IEEE International Conf. Systems, Man and Cybernetics, Oct 2002 [2] Vignesh Kumar M, Ferat Sahin, "Foraging in Ant Colonies applied to the Mine Detection Problem", IEEE International Workshop on Soft Computing in Industrial Applications, 2003 [3] Vignesh Kumar M, Ferat Sahin, "Cognitive Maps in Swarm Robots for the Mine Detection Application", IEEE International Conf. Systems, Man and Cybernetics, 2003 [4] Vignesh Kumar and Ferat Sahin, "Ant Colony Optimization based Swarms: Application" Implementation for the Mine Detection IEEE International Conf. Systems, Man and Cybernetics, 2004 Table of Contents 1. Introduction 9 2. Background and Motivation 1 1 2.1 Multi Agent Systems 11 2.2 Social Insects 15 2.2.1 Self-Organization 18 2.2.2 Emergent Behavior 20 2.2.3 Stigmergy 21 2.3 The Ant Colony System 22 2.4 Navigation in ants 24 2.5 Collective Transportation in Ants 27 2.6 Recruitment ofNestmates 28 2.7 Coordination in Collective Transportation 30 3. Swarm Intelligence based Approach for Mine Detection 31 3.1 Problem Definition 31 3.2 Demining: Challenges and Trends 32 3.3 Normal classification ofmines 34 3.4 Sensor Technologies 38 3.5 The Swarm Intelligence based solution 44 4. Analysis and Results 61 5. The Implementation ofthe Ant Algorithm with Groundscouts 78 5.1 Results ofthe Groundscouts Experiment 87 6. Future work 89 7. Conclusion 90 References 91 List of Figures Figure 1: Qualities ofMulti Agent Systems Figure 2: The Mine Detection Algorithm Figure 3: The overlap ofthree scent spread regions Figure 4: A Sample Simulation- The Mine Detection Problem Figure 5: Results for runs on a 100x100 field with deterministic motion Figure 6: Results for runs on a 100x100 field with random walk Figure 7: Curve of freezing (sixty percent failure line) Figure 8: Minefield plotted into cognitive regions Figure 9: Runs on a 96x96 field for ants equipped with cognitive memory Figure 10: Runs on a 48x48 field for ants equipped with cognitive memory Figure 11: Curve ofFreezing Figure 12: Performance curve against Reduction Factor Figure 13: Comparative performance of ants with and without cognitive memory on a 96x96 field Figure 14: Progressive demining of ants with and without cognitive memory Figure 15: Cognitive map based ant foraging- Cognitive Meandering Figure 16: Runs conducted on a 96x96 field-Cognitive Meandering Figure 17: Runs conducted on a 48x48 field-Cognitive Meandering Figure 18: Curve ofFreezing Figure 19: Performance curve against Reduction Factor-Cognitive Meandering Figure 20: Comparative performance of ants with and without cognitive meandering ability on a 96x96 field Figure 21: Progressive demining of ants with cognitive meandering ability Figure 22: Component blocks ofthe Cooperative Autonomous Robots Figure 23: Collective action of four ants to demine a mine Figure 24: Ultrasonic Sensor and its sensory range Figure 25: Cooperative Autonomous Robots in the demonstration ofMine Detection Abstract This research focuses on the application of swarm intelligence to the problem of mine detection. Swarm Intelligence concepts have captivated the interests of researchers mainly in collective robotics, optimization problems (traveling salesman problem (TSP), quadratic assignment problem, graph coloring etc.), and communication networks (routing) etc [1]. In the mine detection problem we are faced with sub problems such as searching for the mines over the minefield, defusing them effectively, and assuring that the field is clear of mines within the least possible time. In the problem, we assume that the mines can be diffused by the collective action of the robots for which a model based on ant colonies is given. In the first part of the project we study the ant colony system applied to the mine detection problem. The theoretical aspects such as the ant's behavior (reaction of the ants to various circumstances that it faces), their motion over the minefield, and their process of defusing the mines are investigated. In the second section we highlight a certain formulation that the ants may be given for doing the task effectively. The ants do the task effectively when they are able to assure that the minefield is clear ofthe mines within the least possible time. A compilation ofthe results obtained by the various studies is tabulated. In the third and final section we talk about our emulations conducted on the Multi Agent Biorobotics Lab-built groundscout robots, which were used for the demonstration of our swarm intelligence-based algorithms at a practical basis. The various projects thus far conducted were a part of the Multi Agent Biorobotics Lab at Rochester Institute of Technology. 1. Introduction Intelligence lies in the judicious use of smartness (a collection of knowledge) of an entity or a group of entities. Animals, humans and robots can be analyzed as multi tasking autonomous control systems based on well-established ethological principles that exhibit intelligence. Biological systems are argued to exhibit a better understanding of intelligence' intelligence than that of traditional 'artificial [1, 2, 3, 6]. Applications to biological based systems are constantly expanding. One of the interesting aspects of biological based studies is swarm intelligence. Swarm intelligence refers to the studies wherein intelligence is bestowed in a disembodied medium. Swarm Intelligence can be defined as the property by which a group of simple, autonomous, intelligent agents interacting indirectly and collectively bring about solutions to complex tasks [1, 2, 7, 8]. The tasks are usually distributive in nature. Basically swarms exhibit models of behavior-based systems, which are autonomous (no central control involved), and have a strong desire for reaction and adaptability. Robustness in problem solving is achieved with simple individuals interacting in a dynamic environment producing complex tasks. In this project we applied the principles of swarm intelligence to the problem of mine detection. Examples of swarms include ant colonies, wasps, birds, cattle herds, frogs and other colony based living organisms. We report the parameters assumed, observations made and results obtained in this application. The first section of the review explains the basic attributes of swarm intelligence, with regard to the ant colony, which is typical of the swarm family.