A distributed architecture with two layers for odor source localization in multi-robot systems

This paper deals with the problem of odor source localization by using multi-robot systems. A distributed architecture, which consists of two layers: artificial intelligence layer and control layer, is proposed. Firstly, in the artificial intelligence layer, evolutionary algorithms, which can tackle information from other robots via communication networks, are employed. By using these evolutionary algorithms, the next state of a robot can be derived. Secondly, in the control layer, a consensus algorithm is used to control the robot to complete state transition from the current state to the new state derived. Finally, odor source localization problems are used to illustrate the effectiveness of the distributed architecture with two layers.