Path planning of swarm mobile robots using firefly algorithm

A swarm robot system consists of with multiple mobile robots, each of which is called an agent. Each agent interacts with others and cooperates for a given task and a given environment. For the swarm robotic system, the loss of the entire work capability by malfunction or damage to a single robot is relatively small and replacement and repair of the robot is less costly. So, it is suitable to perform more complex tasks. The essential component for a swarm robotic system is an inter-robot collaboration strategy for teamwork. Recently, the swarm intelligence theory is applied to robotic system domain as a new framework of collective robotic system design. In this paper, FA (Firefly Algorithm) which is based on firefly's reaction to the lights of other fireflies and their social behavior is employed to optimize the group behavior of multiple robots. The main application of the firefly algorithm is performed on path planning of swarm mobile robots and its effectiveness is verified by simulations under various conditions.