About Some Aspects of Finite State Machine Models Application to Group Control

Abstract

The article discusses using discrete-event models to control the coordinated behavior of groups of agents and proposes a mechanism for organizing behavior control based on a hierarchy of finite state machines (FSM). The basic level of agent movement control uses a continuous model of joint movement — the method of potentials, in which the direction of movement is determined by the total sum of the forces of "repulsion", "attraction" and "course alignment". The paper describes a set of independent rules for the group movement of agents — cohesion, distribution, leader following, movement along a chain of landmarks, pursuit, etc. Moreover, all of them are interpreted in terms of the results of the operation of FSM models. Mathematical modeling of controlling a group of agents was carried out using the independent rules of group movement, which confirmed their efficacy. Computational experiments were also carried out using the Gazebo 3D simulator. In addition, the paper describes an experimental group of three underwater vehicles that were used to test the independent rules of group movement: cohesion, distribution, leader following. Communication between the devices was carried out using a system of infrared transceivers via a pseudo-analog channel. The experiments were carried out in a laboratory pool and were successful.The paper shows that the technology for creating group control systems based on the hierarchy of FSM (meta-FSM) allows solving control problems not only at the level of abstract models and simulation modeling, but also at the level of creating real robotic complexes.