Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems

Book excerpt: This book presents the state of the art in distributed autonomous systems composed of multiple robots, robotic modules, or robotic agents. Swarms in nature can not only adapt to their environments, but can also construct suitable habitats to their own advantage. Distributed autonomous robotic systems can do many things that its individuals cannot do alone. As the global pandemic was still ongoing, the 15th International Symposium on Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems (DARS2021) was held on June 1–4, 2021, as an online meeting. The scope of DARS201 was to create a bridge between biologists and engineers interested in the distributed intelligence of living things and to establish a new academic field by integrating knowledge from both disciplines. Topics of DARS2021 were swarm intelligence, swarm robotics, multi-agent system, modular robotics, decentralized control, distributed system, etc. The papers in this book provide a very good overview of the state of the art in distributed autonomous robotic systems (DARS). They reflect current research themes in DARS with important contributions. We hope that this book helps to sustain the interest in DARS and triggers new research.