P Colonies for the Control of Single and Multiple Robots

Abstract

The fourth chapter is dedicated to the topic of controlling single and multiple robots using P colonies. The open-source P colony simulator Lulu is used as a software basis that allowed for the development of a discrete robot controller. The chapter is organized around a set of experiments that are ordered by difficulty and are described using the P colony model and execution diagrams. These diagrams allow the reader to view when and what will be the response of the robot to a given input signal. Several screenshots are also presented to aid in understanding this process. All of the experiments can be fully replicated by using the input files provided within the chapter or the on-line guidelines that are available at http://membranecomputing.net/IGIBook.