Preface

Robots are envisioned to play an increasingly important It is a big challenge for a human to control or manage role in applications such as search, rescue, surveillance, swarms because of the limitations of each individual robot and reconnaissance operations. Nowadays, the majority of and the sheer number of robots that need to be coordinated mobile robots developed and deployed for such applications to successfully complete a mission. Autonomous algorithms are (a) individually very capable both in terms of autonomy may mitigate some of the complexity an operator faces in and sensor, and (b) are teleoperated or otherwise managed controlling such swarms, but resolving how authority and by a single or multiple operators. In contrast to the sophisticated influence should be shared poses a significant new research robots currently used for these applications, the development problem. of cheaper hardware allows the creation of swarm systems composed of many more robots but with each individual being far less powerful.