Many new methodologies for the control of large-scale multi-agent systems are based on macroscopic representations of the emerging system dynamics, in the form of continuum approximations of large ensembles. These techniques, that are developed in the limit case of an infinite number of agents, are usually validated only through numerical simulations. In this paper, we introduce a mixed reality set-up for testing swarm robotics techniques, focusing on the macroscopic collective motion of robotic swarms. This hybrid apparatus combines both real differential drive robots and virtual agents to create a heterogeneous swarm of tunable size. We also extend continuification-based control methods for swarms to higher dimensions, and assess experimentally their validity in the new platform. Our study demonstrates the effectiveness of the platform for conducting large-scale swarm robotics experiments, and it contributes new theoretical insights into control algorithms exploiting continuification approaches.

翻译：大规模多智能体系统的诸多新型控制方法基于系统涌现动力学的宏观表征，其形式表现为大规模智能体集合的连续近似。这些在无限智能体极限情况下发展的技术通常仅通过数值模拟进行验证。本文提出一种用于测试群体机器人技术的混合现实实验平台，重点关注机器人集群的宏观集体运动。该混合装置结合真实差速驱动机器人与虚拟智能体，构建了规模可调的异构集群。我们进一步将基于连续化的群体控制方法扩展至高维空间，并在新平台上通过实验验证其有效性。本研究证明了该平台开展大规模群体机器人实验的有效性，并为利用连续化方法的控制算法提供了新的理论见解。