Hi everyone,

This is an announcement for micros_swarm_framework, developed by Xuefeng Chang in our group (the micROS Team, https://micros.trustie.net). micros_swarm_framework is a ROS-based programming framework for swarm robotics. It is motivated by the rapidly increasing volume of research effort devoted into multi-robot systems and swarm robotics, and the design choice of API is largely enlightened by the Buzz programming language (http://the.swarming.buzz/). Its goal is to facilitate ROS users in developing applications of robot swarms, by providing essential mechanisms, such as abstraction of swarms, swarm management, various communication tools, and a runtime environment, within the standard ROS ecosystem.

Currently, it is completely compatible with ROS indigo and presented in the form of a C++ library. Many additional features will be added in the future to make the framework more user-friendly and powerful.

Documentation can be found on ROS Wiki: https://wiki.ros.org/micros_swarm_framework. Source code for the framework and demos in the Stage simulator can be found on GitHub: https://github.com/xuefengchang/micros_swarm_framework.

Hope you enjoy! Comments and suggestions would be highly appreciated.