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I. J. Robotic Res. 01/2006; 25:73-101.
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Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2005, April 18-22, 2005, Barcelona, Spain; 01/2005
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ABSTRACT: In order for a team of autonomous robots to perform a complex mission effectively, an efficient assignment of tasks to robots must be determined. Existing multirobot task allocation algorithms treat tasks as simple, indivisible entities. However, when dealing with complex tasks, the structure and semantics of the tasks can be exploited to produce more efficient team plans by giving individual robots the ability to come up with new ways to perform a task, or by allowing multiple robots to cooperate by sharing the subcomponents of a task, or both. In this paper we detail a method for efficiently allocating a set of complex tasks to a robot team. The advantages of explicitly modeling complex tasks during the allocation process is demonstrated by a comparison of our approach with existing task allocation algorithms in an area reconnaissance scenario. An implementation on a team of outdoor robots further validates our approach.
11/2004;
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ABSTRACT: Robustness is crucial for any robot team, especially when operating in dynamic environments. The physicality of robotic systems and their interactions with the environment make them highly prone to malfunctions of many kinds. Three principal categories in the possible space of robot malfunctions are communication failures, partial failure of robot resources necessary for task execution (or partial robot malfunction), and complete robot failure (or robot death). This paper addresses these three categories and explores means by which the TraderBots approach ensures robustness and promotes graceful degradation in team performance when faced with malfunctions.
09/2004;
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ABSTRACT: This paper reports details of a versatile implementation of the TraderBots approach: A market-based approach to multirobot coordination. The architectural layout, implementation details, and variety of features are described. Experimental results are presented using a team of Pioneer II DX robots engaged in exploration and distributed sensing tasks. Different features and strengths of the approach and the implementation are highlighted in the experimental results.
09/2004;
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ABSTRACT: Multi-robot teams can improve safety and increase human productivity for operations in hazardous environments. To be effective, a control scheme is needed to decompose a task, assign subtasks to individual robots, and synchronize execution. We have developed a market model for this control scheme that realizes the best of both centralized and distributed approaches. In the market approach, robots coordinate opportunistically to meet team constraints and to optimize the team solution. In this paper, we illustrate how the market is used to coordinate at the task decomposition, assignment, and execution phases, depending on the requirements of the given application. We present results from simulation and from actual robots for the applications of mapping, area reconnaissance, and perimeter sweeping.
05/2004;
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Proceedings of the 2004 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2004, April 26 - May 1, 2004, New Orleans, LA, USA; 01/2004
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ABSTRACT: In this paper, we introduce a novel approach to multirobot coordination that works by simultaneously distributing task allocation, mission planning, and execution among members of a robot team. By combining traditional hierarchical task decomposition techniques with recent developments in market-based multirobot control, we obtain an efficient and robust distributed system capable of solving complex problems. Essentially, we have extended the TraderBots market-based architecture to include a mechanism that distributes tasks among robots at multiple levels of abstractions, represented as task trees. Results are presented for a simulated area reconnaissance scenario.
12/2003;
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Field and Service Robotics, Recent Advances in Reserch and Applications, FSR 2003, Lake Yamanaka, Japan, 14-16 July 2003; 01/2003
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ABSTRACT: This paper presents an architecture that enables multiple robots to explicitly coordinate actions at multiple levels of abstraction. In particular, we are developing an extension to the traditional three-layered robot architecture that enables robots to interact directly at each layer -- at the behavioral level, the robots create distributed control loops; at the executive level, they synchronize task execution; at the planning level, they use market-based techniques to assign tasks, form teams, and allocate resources. We illustrate these ideas through applications in multi-robot assembly, multi-robot deployment, and multi-robot mapping.
11/2002;
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ABSTRACT: This work presents a novel approach to e#cient multirobot mapping and exploration which exploits a market architecture in order to maximize information gain while minimizing incurred costs. This system is reliable and robust in that it can accommodate dynamic introduction and loss of team members in addition to being able to withstand communication interruptions and failures. Results showing the capabilities of our system on a team of exploring autonomous robots are given.
04/2002;
