Low Bandwidth Control of Swarms in Constrained Environments

Collaborative autonomous surface vehicles (ASV) could use swarm behaviors to address complex tasks like collectively transiting through narrow passages (e.g., leads in Arctic sea ice, as shown in Fig. 1). Generally, swarming involves large numbers of self-organizing entities that interact through simple rules, ranging from gnats to robots. Collaboration, on the other hand, involves fewer entities with deliberation beyond simple rules. However, collaborating robots could engage in swarm behaviors in response to certain situations.