@proceedings{691,
  author = {Julia Ebert and Melvin Gauci and Frederick Mallmann-Trenn and Radhika Nagpal},
  title = {Bayes Bots: Collective Bayesian Decision-Making in Decentralized Robot Swarms},
  abstract = {<p>We present a distributed Bayesian algorithm for robot swarms to classify a spatially distributed feature of an environment. This type of {\textquotedblleft}go/no-go{\textquotedblright} decision appears in applications where a group of robots must collectively choose whether to take action, such as determining if a farm field should be treated for pests. Previous bio-inspired approaches to decentralized decision-making in robotics lack a statistical foundation, while decentralized Bayesian algorithms typically require a strongly connected network of robots. In contrast, our algorithm allows simple, sparsely distributed robots to quickly reach accurate decisions about a binary feature of their environment. We investigate the speed vs. accuracy tradeoff in decision-making by varying the algorithm{\textquoteright}s parameters. We show that making fewer, less-correlated observations can improve decision-making accuracy, and that a well-chosen combination of prior and decision threshold allows for fast decisions with a small accuracy cost. Both speed and accuracy also improved with the addition of bio-inspired positive feed- back. This algorithm is also adaptable to the difficulty of the environment. Compared to a fixed-time benchmark algorithm with accuracy guarantees, our Bayesian approach resulted in equally accurate decisions, while adapting its decision time to the difficulty of the environment.</p>},
  year = {2020},
  journal = {Intl. Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)},
  language = {eng},
}