Submitted by Maria Aparecida (cidazen@gmail.com) on 2017-04-17T12:23:49Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Tiago Martins Ribeiro.pdf: 2146814 bytes, checksum: c04c7e63303157b4345d0985576e1620 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-04-17T12:23:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tiago Martins Ribeiro.pdf: 2146814 bytes, checksum: c04c7e63303157b4345d0985576e1620 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-02-20 / CAPES / Complex optimization problems have been studied over the years by researchers seeking better solutions, these studies have encouraged the development of several algorithms of artificial intelligence, and a part of them are bio-inspired methods, based on the behavior of populations. These algorithms target to develop techniques based on nature in search of solutions to these problems. In this work, was introduced as a purpose, an algorithm based on the behavior of locust swarms, the Locust Swarm Optimizer (LSO). The behavior of the desert locust is introduced highlighting the formation of clouds of attacks caused by a synthesized neurotransmitter monoamine, present on the insect, known as serotonin. Observing this behavior, the LSO was developed. It was compared to other known artificial intelligence techniques through 23 benchmark functions and also tested on an power system economical dispatch problem. From the point of view of the results and the ease of implementation, it can be concluded that the LSO algorithm is very competitive as compared to existing methods / Problemas complexos de otimização vêm sendo estudados ao longo dos anos por pesquisadores que buscam melhores soluções, estes estudos incentivaram o desenvolvimento de vários algoritmos de inteligência artificial, sendo que uma parte deles são métodos bioinspirados, baseados no comportamento de populações. Estes algoritmos têm como objetivo desenvolver técnicas baseadas na natureza em busca de soluções para estes problemas. Neste trabalho um algoritmo baseado no comportamento de enxames de gafanhotos-do-deserto, o Locust Swarm Optimizer (LSO), foi introduzido como objetivo. O comportamento do gafanhoto-do-deserto é apresentado destacando a formação de nuvens de ataques causada por uma monoamina neurotransmissora sintetizada, presente no inseto, conhecido por serotonina. Observando este comportamento, foi desenvolvido o LSO. Ele foi comparado com outras conhecidas técnicas de inteligência artificial através de 23 funções benchmarks e também, testado em um problema de despacho econômico. Do ponto de vista dos resultados e da facilidade de implementação, pode-se concluir que o algoritmo LSO é bastante competitivo comparado aos métodos atuais existentes.

Ant colony optimization (ACO) is an algorithm which simulates ant foraging behavior. When ants search for food they leave pheromone trails to tell other ants which paths to take to find food. ACO has been adapted to many different problems in computer science: mainly variations on shortest path algorithms for graphs and networks. ACO can be adapted to work as a form of communication between separate agents in a video game AI. By controlling the effectiveness of this communication, the difficulty of the game should be able to be controlled. Experimentation has shown that ACO works effectively as a form of communication between agents and supports that ACO is an effective form of difficulty control. However, further experimentation is needed to definitively show that ACO is effective at controlling difficulty and to show that it will also work in a large scale system.

La première détection des ondes gravitationnelles en 2015 a ouvert un nouveau plan d'étude pour l'astrophysique des étoiles binaires compactes. En utilisant les données des détections faites par les détecteurs terrestres advanced LIGO et advanced Virgo, il est possible de contraindre les paramètres physiques de ces systèmes avec une analyse Bayésienne et ainsi approfondir notre connaissance physique des étoiles binaires compactes. Cependant, pour pouvoir être en mesure d'obtenir de tels résultats, il est essentiel d’avoir des algorithmes performants à la fois pour trouver les signaux de ces ondes gravitationnelles et pour l'estimation de paramètres. Le travail de cette thèse a ainsi été centré autour du développement d’algorithmes performants et adaptées au problème physique à la fois de la détection et de l'estimation des paramètres pour les ondes gravitationnelles. La plus grande partie de ce travail de thèse a ainsi été dédiée à l'implémentation d’un algorithme de type Hamiltonian Monte Carlo adapté à l'estimation de paramètres pour les signaux d’ondes gravitationnelles émises par des binaires compactes formées de deux étoiles à neutrons. L'algorithme développé a été testé sur une sélection de sources et a été capable de fournir de meilleures performances que d'autres algorithmes de type MCMC comme l'algorithme de Metropolis-Hasting et l'algorithme à évolution différentielle. L'implémentation d'un tel algorithme dans les pipelines d’analyse de données de la collaboration pourrait augmenter grandement l'efficacité de l'estimation de paramètres. De plus, il permettrait également de réduire drastiquement le temps de calcul nécessaire, ce qui est un facteur essentiel pour le futur où de nombreuses détections sont attendues. Un autre aspect de ce travail de thèse a été dédié à l'implémentation d'un algorithme de recherche de signaux gravitationnelles pour les binaires compactes monochromatiques qui seront observées par la future mission spatiale LISA. L'algorithme est une mixture de plusieurs algorithmes évolutionnistes, avec notamment l'inclusion d'un algorithme de Particle Swarm Optimisation. Cette algorithme a été testé dans plusieurs cas tests et a été capable de trouver toutes les sources gravitationnelles comprises dans un signal donné. De plus, l'algorithme a également été capable d'identifier des sources sur une bande de fréquence aussi grande que 1 mHz, ce qui n'avait pas été réalisé au moment de cette étude de thèse. / The first detection of gravitational waves in 2015 has opened a new window for the study of the astrophysics of compact binaries. Thanks to the data taken by the ground-based detectors advanced LIGO and advanced Virgo, it is now possible to constrain the physical parameters of compact binaries using a full Bayesian analysis in order to increase our physical knowledge on compact binaries. However, in order to be able to perform such analysis, it is essential to have efficient algorithms both to search for the signals and for parameter estimation. The main part of this thesis has been dedicated to the implementation of a Hamiltonian Monte Carlo algorithm suited for the parameter estimation of gravitational waves emitted by compact binaries composed of neutron stars. The algorithm has been tested on a selection of sources and has been able to produce better performances than other types of MCMC methods such as Metropolis-Hastings and Differential Evolution Monte Carlo. The implementation of the HMC algorithm in the data analysis pipelines of the Ligo/Virgo collaboration could greatly increase the efficiency of parameter estimation. In addition, it could also drastically reduce the computation time associated to the parameter estimation of such sources of gravitational waves, which will be of particular interest in the near future when there will many detections by the ground-based network of gravitational wave detectors. Another aspect of this work was dedicated to the implementation of a search algorithm for gravitational wave signals emitted by monochromatic compact binaries as observed by the space-based detector LISA. The developed algorithm is a mixture of several evolutionary algorithms, including Particle Swarm Optimisation. This algorithm has been tested on several test cases and has been able to find all the sources buried in a signal. Furthermore, the algorithm has been able to find the sources on a band of frequency as large as 1 mHz which wasn’t done at the time of this thesis study

Multimodal function optimization generally focuses on algorithms to find either a local optimum or the global optimum while avoiding local optima. However, there is another class of optimization problems which have the objective of finding multiple optima with either equal or unequal function values. The knowledge of multiple local and global optima has several advantages such as obtaining an insight into the function landscape and selecting an alternative solution when dynamic nature of constraints in the search space makes a previous optimum solution infeasible to implement. Applications include identification of multiple signal sources like sound, heat, light and leaks in pressurized systems, hazardous plumes/aerosols resulting from nuclear/ chemical spills, fire-origins in forest fires and hazardous chemical discharge in water bodies, oil spills, deep-sea hydrothermal vent plumes, etc. Signals such as sound, light, and other electromagnetic radiations propagate in the form of a wave. Therefore, the nominal source profile that spreads in the environment can be represented as a multimodal function and hence, the problem of localizing their respective origins can be modeled as optimization of multimodal functions. Multimodality in a search and optimization problem gives rise to several attractors and thereby presents a challenge to any optimization algorithm in terms of finding global optimum solutions. However, the problem is compounded when multiple (global and local) optima are sought. This thesis develops a novel glowworm swarm optimization (GSO) algorithm for simultaneous capture of multiple optima of multimodal functions. The algorithm shares some features with the ant-colony optimization (ACO) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithms, but with several significant differences. The agents in the GSO algorithm are thought of as glowworms that carry a luminescence quantity called luciferin along with them. The glowworms encode the function-profile values at their current locations into a luciferin value and broadcast the same to other agents in their neighborhood. The glowworm depends on a variable local decision domain, which is bounded above by a circular sensor range, to identify its neighbors and compute its movements. Each glowworm selects a neighbor that has a luciferin value more than its own, using a probabilistic mechanism, and moves toward it. That is, they are attracted to neighbors that glow brighter. These movements that are based only on local information enable the swarm of glowworms to partition into disjoint subgroups, exhibit simultaneous taxis-behavior towards, and rendezvous at multiple optima (not necessarily equal) of a given multimodal function. Natural glowworms primarily use the bioluminescent light to signal other individuals of the same species for reproduction and to attract prey. The general idea in the GSO algorithm is similar in these aspects in the sense that glowworm agents are assumed to be attracted to move toward other glowworm agents that have brighter luminescence (higher luciferin value). We present the development of the GSO algorithm in terms of its working principle, various algorithmic phases, and evolution of the algorithm from the first version of the algorithm to its present form. Two major phases ¡ splitting of the agent swarm into disjoint subgroups and local convergence of agents in each subgroup to peak locations ¡ are identified at the group level of the algorithm and theoretical performance results related to the latter phase are obtained for a simplified GSO model. Performance of the GSO algorithm against a large class of benchmark multimodal functions is demonstrated through simulation experiments. We categorize the various constants of the algorithm into algorithmic constants and parameters. We show in simulations that fixed values of the algorithmic constants work well for a large class of problems and only two parameters have some influence on algorithmic performance. We also study the performance of the algorithm in the presence of noise. Simulations show that the algorithm exhibits good performance in the presence of fairly high noise levels. We observe graceful degradation only with significant increase in levels of measurement noise. A comparison with the gradient based algorithm reveals the superiority of the GSO algorithm in coping with uncertainty. We conduct embodied robot simulations, by using a multi-robot-simulator called Player/Stage that provides realistic sensor and actuator models, in order to assess the GSO algorithm's suitability for multiple source localization tasks. Next, we extend this work to collective robotics experiments. For this purpose, we use a set of four wheeled robots that are endowed with the capabilities required to implement the various behavioral primitives of the GSO algorithm. We present an experiment where two robots use the GSO algorithm to localize a light source. We discuss an application of GSO to ubiquitous computing based environments. In particular, we propose a hazard-sensing environment using a heterogeneous swarm that consists of stationary agents and mobile agents. The agents deployed in the environment implement a modification of the GSO algorithm. In a graph of mini mum number of mobile agents required for 100% source-capture as a function of the number of stationary agents, we show that deployment of the stationary agents in a grid configuration leads to multiple phase-transitions in the heterogeneous swarm behavior. Finally, we use the GSO algorithm to address the problem of pursuit of multiple mobile signal sources. For the case where the positions of the pursuers and the moving source are collinear, we present a theoretical result that provides an upper bound on the relative speed of the mobile source below which the agents succeed in pursuing the source. We use several simulation scenarios to demonstrate the ecacy of the algorithm in pursuing mobile signal sources. In the case where the positions of the pursuers and the moving source are non-collinear, we use numerical experiments to determine an upper bound on the relative speed of the mobile source below which the pursuers succeed in pursuing the source.

Locating an odor source in a turbulent environment, an instinctive behavior of insects such as moths, is a nontrivial task in robotics. Robots equipped with odor sensors find it difficult to locate the odor source due to the sporadic nature of odor patches in a turbulent environment. In this thesis, we develop a swarm algorithm which acquires information from odor patches and utilizes it to locate the odor source. The algorithm utilizes an intelligent integration of the chemotaxis, anemotaxis and spiralling approaches, where the chemotactic behavior is implemented by the recently proposed Glowworm Swarm Optimization (GSO) algorithm. Agents switch between chemotactic, anemotactic, and spiralling modes in accordance with the information available from the environment for optimal performance. The proposed algorithm takes full advantage of communication and collaboration between the robots. It is shown to be robust, efficient and well suited for implementation in olfactory robots. An important feature of the algorithm is the use of maximum concentration encountered in the recent past for navigation, which is seen to improve algorithmic performance significantly. The algorithm initially assumes agents to be point masses, later this is modified for robots and includes a gyroscopic avoidance strategy. A variant of the algorithm which does not demand wind information, is shown to be capable of locating odor sources even in no wind environment. A deterministic GSO algorithm has been proposed which is shown capable of faster convergence. Another proposed variant, the push pull GSO algorithm is shown to be more efficient in the presence of obstacle avoidance. The proposed algorithm is also seen capable of locating odor source under varying wind conditions. We have also shown the simultaneous capture of multiple odor sources by the proposed algorithm. A mobile odor source is shown to be captured and tracked by the proposed approach. The proposed approaches are later tested on data obtained from a realistic dye mixing experiment. A gas source localization experiment is also carried out in the lab to demonstrate the validity of the proposed approaches under real world conditions.

Thesis (MScEng (Electrical and Electronic Engineering))--University of Stellenbosch, 2011. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Swarm intelligence research was inspired by biological systems in nature. Working ants and bees has captivated researchers for centuries, with the ant playing a major role in shaping the future of robotic swarm applications. The ants foraging activity can be adapted for different applications of robotic swarm intelligence. Numerous researchers have conducted theoretical analysis and experiments on the ants foraging activities and communication styles. Combining this information with modern reconfigurable computing opens the door to more complex behaviour with improved system dynamics. Reconfigurable computing has numerous applications in swarm intelligence such as true hardware parallel processing, dynamic power save algorithms and dynamic peripheral changes to the CPU core. In this research a brief study is made of swarm intelligence and its applications. The ants' foraging activities were studied in greater detail with the emphasis on a layered control system designed implementation in a robotic agent. The robotic agent’s hardware was designed using a partial self reconfigurable FPGA as the main building element. The hardware was designed with the emphasis on system flexibility for swarm application drawing attention to power reduction and battery life. All of this was packaged into a differential drive chassis designed specifically for this project. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die motivering vir swerm robotika kom van die natuur. Vir eeue fassineer swerm insekte soos bye en miere navorsers. Dit is verstommend hoe ’n groep klein en nietige insekte sulke groot take kan verrig. Die mier speel ‘n belangrike rol en is die sentrale tema van menige publikasies. Die mier se kos-soek aktiwiteit kan aangepas word vir swerm robotika toepassings. Hierdie aktiwiteit vervat verskeie sleutel konsepte wat belangrik is vir robotika toepassings. Deur bv. die mier se aktiwiteite te kombineer met dinamies herkonfigureerbare hardeware, kan meer komplekse gedrag bestudeer word. Die stelsel dinamika verbeter ook, aangesien dit nou moontlik is om sekere take in parallel uit te voer. Deur ’n interne prosesseerder in die herkonfigureerbare hardeware in te sluit, is dit nou vir die stelsel moontlik om homself te verander tydens taak verrigting. Komplekse krag bestuur gedrag is ook moontlik deurdat die prosesseerder die spoed en rand apparaat kan verander soos benodig. ‘n Verdere voordeel is dat die stelsel aanpasbaar is en dus vir verskeie navorsingsprojekte gebruik kan word. In hierdie navorsing word ’n literatuur studie van swerm robotika gemaak en word daar ook na toepassings gekyk. Met die klem op praktiese implementering, word die mier se kos-soek aktiwiteit in detail ondersoek deur gebruik te maak van ’n laag beheerstelsel. In hierdie laag beheerstelsel verteenwoordig elke laag ’n hoër vlak gedrag. Stelsel aanpasbaarheid en lae kragverbruik speel ’n deurslaggewende rol in die ontwerp, en om hierdie rede vorm ’n FPGA die hart van die sisteem.

Submitted by Leonardo Cavalcante (leo.ocavalcante@gmail.com) on 2018-06-11T11:34:10Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Arquivototal.pdf: 1995596 bytes, checksum: bfcc1e1f3a77514dcbf7a8e4f5e4701b (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-06-11T11:34:10Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Arquivototal.pdf: 1995596 bytes, checksum: bfcc1e1f3a77514dcbf7a8e4f5e4701b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-02-16 / Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - CNPq / The problem in investment portfolio selection consists in the allocation of resources to a finite number of assets, aiming, in its classic approach, to overcome a trade-off between the risk and expected return of the portfolio. This problem is one of the most important topics targeted at today’s financial and economic issues. Since the pioneering works of Markowitz, the issue is treated as an optimisation problem with the two aforementioned objectives. However, in recent years, various restrictions and additional risk measurements were identified in the literature, such as, for example, cardinality restrictions, minimum transaction lot and asset pre-selection. This practice aims to bring the issue closer to the reality encountered in financial markets. In that regard, this paper proposes a metaheuristic called Particle Swarm for the optimisation of several PSPs, in such a way that allows the resolution of the problem considering a set of restrictions chosen by the investor. / O problema de seleção de carteiras de investimentos (PSP) consiste na alocação de recursos a um número finito de ativos, objetivando, em sua abordagem clássica, superar um trade-off entre o retorno esperado e o risco da carteira. Tal problema ´e uma das temáticas mais importantes voltadas a questões financeiras e econômicas da atualidade. Desde os pioneiros trabalhos de Markowitz, o assunto é tratado como um problema de otimização com esses dois objetivos citados. Entretanto, nos últimos anos, diversas restrições e mensurações de riscos adicionais foram consideradas na literatura, como, por exemplo, restrições de cardinalidade, de lote mínimo de transação e de pré-seleção de ativos. Tal prática visa aproximar o problema da realidade encontrada nos mercados financeiros. Neste contexto, o presente trabalho propõe uma meta-heurística denominada Adaptive Non-dominated Sorting Multiobjective Particle Swarm Optimization para a otimização de vários problemas envolvendo PSP, de modo que permita a resolução do problema considerando um conjunto de restri¸c˜oes escolhidas pelo investidor.

Ce manuscrit expose notre travail dans le cadre du projet IWARD et détaille la couche de gestion et de décision du groupement de robots. Ce projet avait comme objectif d’assister le personnel médical dans leur travail, ceci est réalisé en utilisant des robots mobiles, reconfigurables, et rechargeables. Ces robots sont conçus pour effectuer des taches logistiques comme : Le transport de médicaments, le nettoyage, le guidage des patients, la surveillance et la téléconsultation. Dans la première partie de la thèse nous présenterons le problème stratégique qui consiste à déterminer les plannings de rechargement des robots, la configuration des robots opérationnels ainsi que la localisation des stations d’attentes des robots lorsqu’ils sont en état de veille. Différentes hiérarchies à plusieurs niveaux de décisions, sont formulées comme des programmes linéaires en nombres entiers. Des formulations utilisant l’approche de génération de colonnes sont aussi développées pour résoudre ces problèmes. Dans la deuxième partie, le problème tactique est exposé, ceci consiste à affecter les taches arrivantes aux différents robots et d’ordonnancer dynamiquement l’exécution ces missions. Deux approches sont inspectées une version centralisée utilisant les algorithmes évolutionnaires et une autre version distribuée utilisant les algorithmes d’enchères inversées. Afin de mettre à l épreuve ces deux approches, une simulation a événements discrets a été conçue et développée spécifiquement pour le projet, permettant ainsi d’évaluer ces deux approches. / Due to the expansion of the life duration and the shortage of medical personal in hospitals the EU funded IWARD project as part of the IFP6 program. The aims of this project were to assist the medical personnel in logistic and non medical tasks (transport, cleaning, environmental monitoring, guidance and tele-monitoring) through the usage of mobile, reconfigurable, rechargeable robots, thus letting the Medical staff to concentrate on medical aspects of their work.This thesis was part of this project, and our work consisted on developing a decision making framework for the team of robots.In the first part of the thesis, we address the strategic decisions essentially the: (i) the robots’ home station location problem, (ii) Robot‘s reconfiguration problems and (iii) Robots recharging scheduling. We formulate those problems as a linear problems and we propose to solve them using Mixed Integer Programming (MIP). We also present a formulation using a column generation approach to solve those problems.In the later part we address the tactical problems, mainly the mission assignment, the mission scheduling and rescheduling. We present two different approaches; a centralized decision finder implemented using genetic algorithms. And a decentralized approach using auction like and market based algorithms in order to provided collaborative decision making framework.Finally we compare those two approaches using a custom made discrete event simulation (DES).

A Inteligência de Enxame foi proposta a partir da observação do comportamento social de espécies de insetos, pássaros e peixes. A ideia central deste comportamento coletivo é executar uma tarefa complexa decompondo-a em tarefas simples, que são facilmente executadas pelos indivíduos do enxame. A realização coordenada destas tarefas simples, respeitando uma proporção pré-definida de execução, permite a realização da tarefa complexa. O problema de alocação de tarefas surge da necessidade de alocar as tarefas aos indivíduos de modo coordenado, permitindo o gerenciamento do enxame. A alocação de tarefas é um processo dinâmico pois precisa ser continuamente ajustado em resposta a alterações no ambiente, na configuração do enxame e/ou no desempenho do mesmo. A robótica de enxame surge deste contexto de cooperação coletiva, ampliada à robôs reais. Nesta abordagem, problemas complexos são resolvidos pela realização de tarefas complexas por enxames de robôs simples, com capacidade de processamento e comunicação limitada. Objetivando obter flexibilidade e confiabilidade, a alocação deve emergir como resultado de um processo distribuído. Com a descentralização do problema e o aumento do número de robôs no enxame, o processo de alocação adquire uma elevada complexidade. Desta forma, o problema de alocação de tarefas pode ser caracterizado como um processo de otimização que aloca as tarefas aos robôs, de modo que a proporção desejada seja atendida no momento em que o processo de otimização encontre a solução desejada. Nesta dissertação, são propostos dois algoritmos que seguem abordagens distintas ao problema de alocação dinâmica de tarefas, sendo uma local e a outra global. O algoritmo para alocação dinâmica de tarefas com abordagem local (ADTL) atualiza a alocação de tarefa de cada robô a partir de uma avaliação determinística do conhecimento atual que este possui sobre as tarefas alocadas aos demais robôs do enxame. O algoritmo para alocação dinâmica de tarefas com abordagem global (ADTG) atualiza a alocação de tarefas do enxame com base no algoritmo de otimização PSO (Particle swarm optimization). No ADTG, cada robô possui uma possível solução para a alocação do enxame que é continuamente atualizada através da troca de informação entre os robôs. As alocações são avaliadas quanto a sua aptidão em atender à proporção-objetivo. Quando é identificada a alocação de maior aptidão no enxame, todos os robôs do enxame são alocados para as tarefas definidas por esta alocação. Os algoritmos propostos foram implementados em enxames com diferentes arranjos de robôs reais demonstrando sua eficiência e eficácia, atestados pelos resultados obtidos. / Swarm Intelligence has been proposed based on the observation of social behavior of insect species, birds and fishes. The main idea of this collective behavior is to perform a complex task decomposing it into many simple tasks, that can be easily performed by individuals of the swarm. Coordinated realization of these simple tasks while adhering to a pre-defined distribution of execution, allows for the achievement of the original complex task. The problem of task allocation arises from the need of assigning tasks to individuals in a coordinated fashion, allowing a good management of the swarm. Task allocation is a dynamic process because it requires a continuous adjustment in response to changes in the environment, the swarm configuration and/or the performance of the swarm. Swarm robotics emerges from this context of collective cooperation applied to swarms of real robots. In this approach, complex problems are solved by performing complex tasks using swarms of simple robots, with a limited processing and communication capabilities. Aiming at achieving flexibility and reliability, the allocation should emerge as a result of a distributed process. With the decentralization of the problem and the increasing number of robots in the swarm, the allocation process acquires a high complexity. Thus, the problem of task allocation can be characterized as an optimization process that assigns tasks to robots, so that the desired proportion is met at the end of the optimization process, find the desired solution. In this dissertation, we propose two algorithms that follow different to the problem of dynamic task allocation approaches: one is local and the other global. The algorithm for dynamic allocation of tasks with a local approach (ADTL) updates the task assignment of each robot based on a deterministic assessment of the current knowledge it has so far about the tasks allocated to the other robots of the swarm. The algorithm for dynamic task allocation with a global approach (ADTG) updates the allocation of tasks based on a swarm optimization process, inspired by PSO (Particle swarm optimization). In ADTG, each robot has a possible solution to the swarm allocation, which is continuously updated through the exchange of information between the robots. The allocations are evaluated for their fitness in meeting the goal proportion. When the allocation of highest fitness in the swarm is identified, all robots of the swarm are allocated to the tasks defined by this allocation. The proposed algorithms were implemented on swarms of different arrangements of real robots demonstrating their efficacy, robustness and efficiency, certified by obtained the results.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Os Sistemas Multi-Robôs proporcionam vantagens sobre um robô individual, quando da realização de uma tarefa com maiores velocidade, precisão e tolerância a falhas. Os estudos dos comportamentos sociais na natureza têm permitido desenvolver algoritmos bio-inspirados úteis na área da robótica de enxame. Seguindo instruções simples e repetitivas, grupos de robôs, fisicamente limitados, conseguem solucionar problemas complexos. Quando existem duas ou mais tarefas a serem realizadas e o conjunto de robôs é heterogêneo, é possível agrupá-los de acordo com as funcionalidades neles disponíveis. No caso em que o conjunto de robôs é homogêneo, o agrupamento pode ser realizado considerando a posição relativa do robô em relação a uma tarefa ou acrescentando alguma característica distintiva. Nesta dissertação, é proposta uma técnica de clusterização espacial baseada simplesmente na comunicação local de robôs. Por meio de troca de mensagens entre os robôs vizinhos, esta técnica permite formar grupos de robôs espacialmente próximos sem precisar movimentar os robôs. Baseando-se nos métodos de clusterização de fichas, a técnica proposta emprega a noção de fichas virtuais, que são chamadas de cargas, sendo que uma carga pode ser estática ou dinâmica. Se uma carga é estática permite determinar a classe à qual um robô pertence. Dependendo da quantidade e do peso das cargas disponíveis no sistema, os robôs intercambiam informações até alcançar uma disposição homogênea de cargas. Quando as cargas se tornam estacionárias, é calculada uma densidade que permite guiar aquelas que estão ainda em movimento. Durante as experiências, foi observado visualmente que as cargas com maior peso acabam se agrupando primeiro enquanto aquelas com menor peso continuam se deslocando no enxame, até que estas cargas formem faixas de densidades diferenciadas para cada classe, alcançando assim o objetivo final que é a clusterização dos robôs. / Multi-Robots Systems provide advantages over a single robot when performing a task, achieving a greater speed, higher accuracy and better fault tolerance. The studies of social behavior in nature have allowed to develop bio-inspired algorithms useful in swarm robotics. Following simple and repetitive rules, groups of robots can provide solutions to complex problems. When two or more tasks to be executed by a set of heterogeneous robots, it is possible to cluster the robots according to their intrinsic features. When homogeneous robots are used, the clustering may be achieved by considering the robot relative position regarding the location where the task has to be performed or adding some other distinct feature. In this dissertation, a technique for spatial clustering simply based on local communication between robots is proposed. Through the message exchange between neighboring robots, this technique allows cluster formation without robot movement. Based on the token clustering methods, the proposed technique employs a virtual token, which is called a load. The load allows identifying the class to which a robot belongs. Depending on the amount and weight of the loads available in the system, the robots interchange information to achieve uniform load distribution. When the loads become stationaries, a density is calculated as to guide the remaining loads that are still in motion. As a consequence, the loads of higher weight cluster first and the those of lower weight continue shifting through the swarm, until they start forming different density ranges for each class, thereby achieving the final aim which is robot clustering.