2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Swarm Test Arena for Resilient Systems: an experimental setup to study and test bio-inspired algorithms

Presented at Multidisciplinary Engineering Division (MULTI) Technical Session 5

Wide-spread utilization of swarm robots to study, implement, simulate and analyze innovative algorithms has been on the rise in academic settings. The swarms currently employed for these purposes display variations in the swarm’s capabilities such as motion, sensing, computational power, and ease of manipulation. These variations primarily pertain to the operational requirements of the algorithms being tested. We propose a Swarm Test Arena for Resilient Systems (STARS) that consists of a fixed testbed with computer vision data collection ability and 50 wheeled robots. It is prominently used to implement biologically inspired algorithms where we study the interactions of these robots as between the entities of a biological colony. This aids the design and understanding of the system resilience in adverse conditions. As such, STARS includes robots with low computational power, wireless data communication, autonomous operational lifespan management with readily available low-cost mechanical, electrical and electronic components.
The unique design aspects combined with the size of this swarm makes it one of the largest wheeled swarms created by students in an academic research capacity. It is a prime resource of educational tools to analyze and improve engineering systems through software and hardware integration. STARS provides engineering students with avenues to explore and learn from the capabilities of a swarm-based experimental setup. They can study the utilization potential of electronics, software, algorithm design and hardware implementations to simulate a biological system. Running these swarm demonstrations presents an opportunity for the students to subject the robots to technical challenges such as cybersecurity threats and find innovative solutions to improve swarm system performance and resilience. Experimenting with intrusion detection using this swarm has led to collaboration of students from multiple disciplines to achieve a common goal. In a broader perspective, this swarm is promoting the creation of a strong foundation for the development of undergraduate and graduate research interests and opportunities, practice of multi-disciplinary engineering, broadening the horizons of STEM outreach to the youth and creation of scalable applications to aerial and space vehicles.

Authors

Ms. Rasika Ravindra Kale Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University [biography]

I am currently pursuing M.S. Systems Engineering and have graduated with B.E. in Mechanical engineering from University of Pune, India and M.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach FL. My research with BID4R lab at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University involves creating a robotic swarm platform with an initial goal of creating a proof-of-concept test arena for biologically inspired resilient systems. The future goals include scaling the swarm to aerial and space vehicles, creating scientific collaboration projects and providing STEM outreach to new generation of engineering students. My personal goal is to apply systems engineering principles to space applications and space debris removal.
Bryan Watson http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2222-6716 Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University - Daytona Beach [biography]

Bryan Watson, PE earned his Ph.D. at the Georgia Institute of Technology and his B.S. in Systems Engineering at the United States Naval Academy in 2009. After graduating, Bryan joined the nuclear Navy, serving as a submarine officer onboard the U.S.S Louisville and at the Naval Prototype Training Unit from 2009-2017. Significant milestones include earning the Master Training Specialist Certification (the military’s highest instructor accreditation), Nuclear Professional Engineer Certification, two Naval Achievement Medals, the Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal, and a Naval Commendation Medal for his work troubleshooting and repairing the Moored Training Ship 635’s reactor and electrical distribution faults. Following his transition from active duty, Bryan earned his PhD as a member of both the Computation and Advancement of Sustainable Systems Lab, where he developed a new method for distributed system demand estimation, and at the Sustainable Design and Manufacturing lab, where his work focused on increasing System of System resilience. Bryan’s work has been published in the Journal of Industrial Ecology, Journal of Mechanical Design, and IEEE’s Systems Journal.

At Embry-Riddle, Bryan’s current work is focused on investigating the use of biologically inspired design to increase the resilience of modern system. The goal of their work is more reliable services to users, increased user safety, and increased sustainability for connected manufacturing, energy, and infrastructure systems.
James E Hand http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4507-3081 Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University - Daytona Beach [biography]

James Hand received his B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas in 2020. While there he worked on several projects, including the university’s NASA Lunabotics competition team. Following this he received his M.S. in Unmanned and Autonomous Systems Engineering at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU), Daytona Beach, Florida in 2022, with a thesis focused on soft robotics in underwater environments. As part of this degree, he was recognized with the Outstanding Master’s Student award in 2021. Currently he is a doctoral candidate in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at ERAU. His studies include work on understanding the complex behaviors in insects that create emergent colony security in the face of infections, and how those behaviors can be used to improve Multi-Agent System security to faulted agents. Additionally, he is a 2024 DoD SMART Fellowship scholar.
Matthew Scheinblum-Brewer Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University - Daytona Beach

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 22, 2025, and to all visitors after the conference ends on July 31, 2025

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