3.4.2. Simulation

The experiments were performed in the ARGoS simulator [21] a multi robot simulator used to simulate large robot swarms. It was assumed that each of the robots was equipped with a food sensor, allowing them to identify food items within a 2m radius and each experiment featured a swarm of 20 robots.

Each test was executed for 500 simulated seconds (each simulation time step lasting 0.1 s) or until the target number of food items were collected.

The number of replicates required for consistent results were determined by performing cumulative mean tests as specified in [22]. This test indicated that the minimum number of trials required for consistency was 36. Therefore, 36 was the lowest number of replicates used when testing these systems.
