autonomous swarm research

Coordinated autonomy for distributed security.

Aegis is an experimental platform for studying multi-agent aerial coordination through reproducible simulation, computer vision and multi-agent learning.

the problem

Security systems don't scale linearly.

Fixed sensors cover a fixed area. A single agent creates a single point of failure. Neither adapts when conditions change or when an agent is lost. Aegis studies whether a coordinated group of agents can cover more ground, adapt to loss, and produce results that can be measured and repeated.

distributed

Coverage is shared across agents rather than concentrated in one sensor or one point of failure.

adaptive

The group redistributes itself when an agent is lost, a target appears, or conditions change.

reproducible

Every scenario runs from a fixed seed and configuration, so behavior can be measured and compared.

system architecture

From perception to autonomous action.

Perception is decoupled from decision-making. Each layer communicates through a fixed contract, so any layer can be replaced without changing the ones around it.

perceptionyolo · bytetrack
↓
world stateground truth
↓
observation builderlocal view
↓
agent observationper-agent
↓
policyheuristic · marl
↓
actionmovement
↓
environmentsimulation · hardware
research stack

Deterministic methods first, learning second.

computer vision
  • YOLO
  • ByteTrack
coordination
  • Voronoi coverage
  • Potential fields
learning
  • Multi-agent reinforcement learning

Deterministic coordination methods serve as a measurable baseline. Multi-agent learning is introduced only after a baseline exists for comparison.

simulation first

Validate behavior before hardware.

obstacle
reproducible experiments

Every episode is recorded in full, so any run can be inspected or repeated exactly.

seed1842
scenarioscenario_1842
configurationagents, world, comms
eventsfailures, targets, obstacles
agent statesposition, velocity, battery
metricscoverage, recovery, collisions
measurable behavior

Every behavior should be measurable.

mean coverage

Average share of the monitored area covered by the swarm over the course of an episode.

recovery time

Time required to restore 90% coverage after an agent failure.

collision rate

Collisions per 1,000 agent-seconds of simulation.

communication loss

Packet loss applied to inter-agent communication during an episode, used as an experimental condition.

example run, not a research result

reproducibility

Same scenario. Different policies.

Baseline and learned policies are evaluated on identical scenarios and derived seeds, so results can be compared in pairs rather than as separate averages.

seed 1842
baseline
marl
seed 1843
baseline
marl
seed 1844
baseline
marl
designed to evolve

Contracts, not assumptions.

perception is replaceable

The decision layer consumes an abstract observation, not a detector's output. Perception can change without changing behavior.

simulation is reproducible

Every episode runs from a fixed seed and configuration, so results can be verified and repeated.

decision is agent-local

Agents act only on what they can observe, including under partial communication.

hardware is abstracted

A simulated agent and a physical one share the same interface, so validated behavior can move to hardware unchanged.

development path

Where the project stands.

01
simulation

Deterministic swarm coordination and measurable coverage.

02
perception

Object detection and multi-object tracking.

03
learning

MARL evaluation against deterministic baselines.

04
physical systems

Port validated behaviors to compatible aerial platforms.

Build systems that coordinate.

Aegis is an experimental platform for studying autonomous multi-agent coordination.