Language-Guided Pattern Formation for Swarm Robotics with Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning

This paper explores leveraging the vast knowledge encoded in Large Language Models (LLMs) to tackle pattern formation challenges for swarm robotics systems. A new framework, named LGPF (Language-Guided Pattern Formation), is proposed to address these challenges. The framework breaks down the pattern formation into two key components: pattern synthesis and swarm robotics control. For the former, this study utilizes the exceptional few-shot generalizability of LLMs to translate high-level natural language descriptions into the desired spatial pattern coordinates. This approach allows for overcoming previous limitations in representing and designing complex patterns. The framework further employs a centralized training with decentralized execution (CTDE) based multiagent reinforcement learning (MARL) approach to control the swarm robots in forming the specified pattern while avoiding collisions. The decentralized policies learned with the CTDE-based MARL algorithm consider coordination between robots without direct communication under a partially observable setup. To validate the effectiveness of our framework, we perform extensive experiments in both simulation and real-world environments. These experiments validate LGPF’s effectiveness in accurately and safely forming diverse user-specified patterns.