Emergence of Leadership in a Group of Autonomous Robots

For modern biology and ethology, the reason for the emergence of leaders-followers patterns in groups of living organisms, is the need of social coordination. In this paper we attempt to examine factors contributing to the emergence of leadership, trying to understand the relation between leader role and behavioral capabilities. In order to achieve this goal, we use a simulation technique where a group of foraging robots has to choose between two identical food zones. Thus, robots must coordinate in some way in order to select the same food zone and collectively gathering food. Behavioral and quantitative analysis indicate that a form of leadership emerges and the emergence of leadership relates with high level of fitness. Moreover, we show that more skilled individuals in a group tend to assume a leadership role, in agreement with literature.

Pugliese F., Acerbi A., Miglino O., Marocco D. (2012), Emergence of Leadership in a Group of Autonomous Robots, in Proceedings of the Post-Graduate Conference on Robotics and Development of Cognition, pp. 36 – 39