The swarm of robots used for Dr. McLurkin's work was built during his tenure at iRobot corporation as project manager and lead software engineer on the DARPA-funded Swarm project.
Our research is on distributed algorithms for multi-robot systems, with a focus on both algorithm and systems design. Our long-term goals are to understand computation on multi-robot systems in theory and in practice.
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 We believe that multi-robot systems will require a unique theory of computation, distinct from robotics in general, distributed computation, and networked systems, but borrowing ideas from them all. |
 Most applications require subgroups of robots to perform different tasks. To support this, we designed a set of four distributed algorithms for dynamic task assignment. |
 The goal of this project is to design a library of practical, well-abstracted, multi-robot distributed algorithms, suitable for many applications. |
 This was joint work with Mac Schwager and Daniela Rus. |
 Similar in spirit to the alpha-shapes of Edelsbrunner, our boundary detection algorithm creates a "skin-tight" boundary around the network, detecting convex and concave sections. |