Ad Hoc Network-Based Task Allocation With Resource-Aware Cost Generation for Multirobot Systems

Abstract

The objective of multirobot task allocation (MRTA) is to assign tasks to robots to minimize the overall cost of task performance. This paper proposes a decentralized MRTA approach considering the robots' residual expendable resources and their limited communication ranges. The proposed approach consists of two algorithms, namely, resource-aware cost generation (RCG) and ad hoc network-based task allocation (ANTA). The RCG algorithm allows each robot to generate a credible cost of task performance considering its residual resources in task planning. The ANTA algorithm constructs the minimal spanning tree network among the robots and determines the robot with the lowest cost for the task through multihop communication in a decentralized manner. The advantages of the proposed approach are minimization of unnecessary task performance cost caused by resource shortage of robots during task execution and the use of an ad hoc network among the robots to allow more robots to participate in the task allocation process. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is demonstrated through computer simulations for multirobot foraging as a test problem.Index Terms-Ad hoc network-based task allocation (ANTA), decentralized task allocation, multirobot systems, resource-aware cost generation (RCG).

Adaptive synchronization control of networked robot systems without velocity measurements

“…Then, we consider the control scheme with parameter updating law (46), where k,max = 0.6. The simulation results are shown in Figures 8,9,10,11,and 12. In this case, we can see that the synchronization errors and observer errors are all converge to zero and the estimated parameters are in accordance with the results in Theorem 2.…”

“…Cooperative control of networked robot systems has received significant research attention, which results from its broad applications in formation control, 1-3 synchronization problem, [4][5][6] wireless sensor networks 7-9 and task allocation. 10,11 Cooperative control protocols for networked single-integrator or double-integrator agents have been extensively studied in the literature, [12][13][14][15] where individual dynamics is simple and the evolution of the states is only determined by linear exchange structure. To satisfy the requirements of complex practical applications, networked robot systems with high nonlinearity need to be investigated.…”

Solving the task variant allocation problem in distributed robotics

“…In such systems, the efficient allocation of software processes (referred to as tasks) to hardware processors is of paramount importance in ensuring optimality. Previous works (Lee et al 2014; generally take an approach that This is one of several papers published in Autonomous Robots comprising the "Special Issue on Robotics Science and Systems".…”

“…Previous works (Lee et al. 2014 ; Liu and Shell 2012 ) generally take an approach that considers only a fixed set of tasks, equivalent to a “one size fits all” architecture, limiting the ability of a system to adapt to different hardware configurations, and reducing the opportunities for optimisation.…”

Task Variant Allocation in Distributed Robotics

“…In such systems, the efficient allocation of software processes (referred to as tasks) to hardware processors is of paramount importance in ensuring optimality. Previous works [13,14] generally take an approach that considers only a fixed set of tasks, equivalent to a "one size fits all" architecture, limiting the ability of a system to adapt to different hardware configurations, and reducing the opportunities for optimisation.…”