Simultaneous Task Subdivision and Allocation Using Negotiations in Multi-Robot Systems. (4th March 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Rossi, Claudio; Aldama, Leyre; Barrientos, Antonio
• Is Part Of: International journal of advanced robotic systems. Volume 12:Number 3(2015)
• Publication Date: 2015-03-04
• Subjects: Multi-robot systems -- Robot cooperation -- Negotiations -- Bargaining -- Task partition and allocation; Robotics -- Periodicals; Robotics; Periodicals; 629.892
• DOI: 10.5772/59880
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1729-8806

Abstract

This paper presents a negotiations-based approach for simultaneous task subdivision and assignment in heterogeneous multi-robot systems. We first propose an abstraction of the concept of a task that allows for the generalizing of a variety of different problems. Based on such an abstraction, we have developed a negotiation protocol based on Rubinstein's alternate offers protocol. This is extended to the multi-dimensional space and employs a heuristic search step for evaluating and generating offers. Furthermore, the issue of how to extend a bilateral negotiations protocol to more than two parties is taken into consideration. The protocol was first tested in numerical simulations with different scenarios and then applied to three real-world missions.