Multiple Pheromones for Improved Guidance

Synthetic pheromone systems offer great potential for spatial coordination in multi-agent systems. Initial experiments with such a system applied to the control of air operations has identified the concept of local guidance that is critical to designing such a system, and that can be supported by using multiple pheromones with differing characteristics. This paper reviews the basic mechanisms of synthetic pheromones, describes local guidance and how multiple pheromones support it, and outlines design methods to guide system designers in exploiting this mechanism.