Stigmergic navigation on an RFID floor with a multi-robot team

Stigmergy is a mechanism that allows the coordination between agents through traces left in the environment. In this paper we discuss the use of stigmergy in minimalist multi-robotic systems, where robots have minimal sensing and processing capabilities. We present three case studies: building a globally optimal navigation map, building an obstacle map, and performing safe goal-directed navigation using these maps. Through stigmergy, multiple robots can seamlessly build a shared map in a coordinated way without any explicit communication. We show empirical validations of our results on a team of ePuck robots as well as in simulation.