Centibots: Large-scale Autonomous Robotic Search and Rescue Experiment

The Centibots were tested, by an independent evaluation team, in an artificial "search and rescue" scenario. The key was to evaluate how to control the robots, how to deploy them, and how effective they are in the mission. The focus of the project was not on making more robotic hardware but to focus on the large-scale aspect and on the control aspect of the problem. NIST(1) runs the USAR program that focuses on the mobility and perception issues of the search-and-rescue problem. Centibots focus on scaling the number of robots and yet still have an effective solution. The robot teams will collaboratively perform tasks with minimal supervision in dynamic environments. Our major contribution will be a distributed robot architecture in which collective behavior is uniquely adaptive, fault tolerant, and capable, incorporating innovative elements.