Mazes have intrigued the human mind for thousands of years, and have been used to measure cognitive abilities of laboratory animals. In recent years, mazes have been used to examine the artificial intelligence of robots by observing their ability to traverse mazes using algorithm for maze exploration and exploitation.A simulation of a multi-agent system is used to demonstrate the benefits of utilizing a group of several robots in maze exploration. Using a behavioral algorithm based on Tarry’s algorithm, it is shown that the group performance improves and becomes more robust as the number of robots increases. In addition, the amount of data transfer required for group coordination can be minimized to a small set of data items, which is independent of either the number of robots in the group or the maze size.As a result, the above multi-agent approach can be scaled up to mazes or groups of any size, as indicated by the results of the MATLAB-based simulation.
The ability to spatially alter both the amount of body force along the span of a plasma actuator and the angle of the resulting jet relative to the surface has been demonstrated. A dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuator consists of two electrodes separated by a dielectric barrier, which imparts momentum to the surrounding fluid parallel to the dielectric. To investigate a technique to shape the spanwise body force created by the plasma actuator, a control volume momentum balance was used. By shaping the buried electrode along the span of the actuator, the local volume of plasma generated can be controlled, which is related to the local body force. Pressure measurements were taken in the boundary layer behind the actuator to calculate the momentum imparted to the flow at various spanwise locations corresponding to different electrode widths. Particle image velocimetry data were then used to show that spatially varying, steady jets could be created with the use of only one actuator by varying the width of the buried electrode in a quiescent flow. The angle of the jet created, relative to the dielectric, by a plasma synthetic jet is also investigated. By pointing two plasma actuators at each other, an inverted impinging jet can be created as a result of the two independent jets colliding. By altering the strength of one of the jets relative to the other, the angle of separation can be changed. Particle image velocimetry data were taken to show the effects of altering the voltage (strength) applied to one of the actuators relative to the other. It was found that, with this method, jet vectoring could be achieved. The angle of the jet could be controlled a full 180 deg through small changes in the voltage applied to the electrodes, also in a quiescent flow.