Task Assignment with Dynamic Perception and Constrained Tasks in a Multi-Robot System

In this paper we present an asynchronous distributed mechanism for allocating tasks in a team of robots. Tasks to be allocated are dynamically perceived from the environment and can be tied by execution constraints. Conflicts among team mates arise when an uncontrolled number of robots execute the same task, resulting in waste of effort and spatial conflicts. The critical aspect of task allocation in Multi Robot Systems is related to conflicts generated by limited and noisy perception capabilities of real robots. This requires significant extensions to the task allocation techniques developed for software agents. The proposed approach is able to successfully allocate roles to robots avoiding conflicts among team mates and maintaining low communication overhead. We implemented our method on AIBO robots and performed quantitative analysis in a simulated environment.

Authors

• Alessandro Farinelli
• Luca Iocchi
• Daniele Nardi
• Vittorio A. Ziparo

Keywords

• Multirobot systems
• Robot kinematics
• Working environment noise
• Software agents
• Remuneration
• Noise generators
• Performance analysis
• Analytical models
• Application software
• Noise shaping
• Multi-agent Systems
• Team Sports
• Task Allocation
• Low Overhead
• Swarm Robotics
• Robot Capabilities
• Synchronization
• Time Step
• Team Members
• Local Structure
• Multi-agent
• Dynamic Environment
• Object Detection
• Real-world Applications
• Object Recognition
• Task Execution
• Active Task
• Perceptual Task
• Object Position
• Reference Scenario
• Simultaneous Tasks
• Distributed Algorithm
• Allocation Process
• Assignment Problem
• Deadlock
• Multi-Robot Systems
• Coordination
• Task Assignment