Strategy creation, decomposition and distribution in particle navigation

Abstract

Strategy planning is crucial to control a group to achieve a number of tasks in a closed area full of obstacles. In this study, genetic programming has been used to evolve rule-based hierarchical structures to move the particles in a grid region to accomplish navigation tasks. Communications operations such as receiving and sending commands between particles are also provided to develop improved strategies. In order to produce more capable strategies, a task decomposition procedure is proposed. In addition, a conflict module is constructed to handle the challenging situations and conflicts such as blockage of a particle's pathway to destination by other particles. (C) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.