Theoretical Framework and Practical Considerations for Achieving Superior Multi-Robot Exploration: Hybrid Cheetah Optimization with Intelligent Initial Configurations

Efficient exploration in multi-robot systems is significantly influenced by the initial start positions of the robots. This paper introduces the hybrid cheetah exploration technique with intelligent initial configuration (HCETIIC), a novel strategy explicitly designed to optimize exploration efficiency across varying initial start configurations: uniform distribution, centralized position, random positions, perimeter positions, clustered positions, and strategic positions. To establish the effectiveness of HCETIIC, we engage in a comparative analysis with four other prevalent hybrid methods in the domain. These methods amalgamate the principles of coordinated multi-robot exploration (CME) with different metaheuristic algorithms and have demonstrated compelling results in their respective studies. The performance comparison is based on essential measures such as runtime, the percentage of the explored area, and failure rate. The empirical results reveal that the proposed HCETIIC method consistently outperforms the compared strategies across different start positions, thereby emphasizing its considerable potential for enhancing efficiency in multi-robot exploration tasks across a wide range of real-world scenarios. This research underscores the critical, yet often overlooked, role of the initial robot configuration in multi-robot exploration, establishing a new direction for further improvements in this field.