A Novel Improved Beluga Whale Optimization Algorithm for Solving Localization Problem in Swarm Robotic Systems

Abstract: In Swarm Robotic Systems (SRSs), only a few robots are equipped with Global Positioning System (GPS) devices, known as anchors. A challenge lies in inferring the positions of other unknown robots based on the positions of anchors. Existing solutions estimate their positions using distance measurements between unknown robots and anchors. Based on existing solutions, this study proposes a novel meta-heuristic algorithm - Improved Beluga Whale Optimization Algorithm (IBWO) to address the localization problem of SRSs, focusing on enhancing the accuracy of localization results. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of this study. Specifically, we test the localization accuracy of robots under different proportions of anchors, different communication radius of robots, and different total number of robots. Compared to the traditional multilateration method and four other localization methods based on meta-heuristic algorithms, the localization accuracy of this method is consistently superior.