Distributed control and coordination of autonomous agents in a dynamic, reconfigurable system

A robotic system comprising:

• a plurality of robot modules in communication with each other and forming a reconfigurable network topology;
• each robot module comprising:
• one or more actuators to cause movement of the robot module;
• a communication interface to send and receive messages to and from the other robot modules, the communication interface forming one or more communication connections;
• and
• a machine-readable medium embodying information indicative of instructions for causing the robot module to perform operations comprising:
• sending control signals to the one or more actuators to cause the robot module to perform actions;
• and
• before each of the actions, discovering a local topology including one or more types of the one or more communication connections.

A robot module comprising:

• means for coupling with a plurality of robot modules;
• means for discovering local topology between each of a plurality of maneuvers;
• and
• means for performing the plurality of maneuvers in collaboration with the plurality of robot modules to effect collective behavior.

A machine-readable medium embodying information indicative of instructions for causing one or more machines to perform operations comprising:

• discovering a communication connection to autonomous agents communicatively coupled together in a reconfigurable network topology;
• determining a local topology including a type of the communication connection;
• receiving a control message having content;
• and
• in response to the control message, determining an action based upon the received message content and the determined local topology.