SELF-ORGANIZING MOBILE ROBOTS BASED ON MULTI-AGENT COORDINATION TECHNIQUES IMPLEMENTED WITH AERIAL VISION AND COMMUNICATION GATEWAY BETWEEN WIFI AND RF

AbstractThis paper presents the development of mobile robots that have the abilities of search and retrieval of obstacles in a maze-like environment. The algorithm embedded in the robots was designed based upon principles of coordination and self-organization, i.e., a group of autonomous agents coordinate their actions in order to search and retrieve obstacles from the environment through cooperation. To do this, two types of agents were designed, organizers and operators. Organizers try to coordinate the actions of the operators, and these last, try to retrieve all obstacles in the environment. Five four-wheeled robots were built from scratch using Arduino Uno for the operators, and Arduino Nano plus NXP i.MX53 Quick Start Boards for the organizers. Also, an aerial camera (attached to the ceiling) was used to provide visual perception to the robots. The communication was made through a gateway between 8bit channel RF and WiFi, for the operators and organizers respectively.Keywords: Computer vision, mobile robots, self-organization.ROBOTS MÓVILES AUTOORGANIZADORES BASADOS EN TÉCNICAS DE COORDINACIÓN MULTIAGENTE IMPLEMENTADAS CON VISIÓN AÉREA Y PUERTA DE ENLACE DE COMUNICACIONES ENTRE WIFI Y RFResumenEste artículo presenta el desarrollo de robots móviles que poseen la capacidad de búsqueda y recuperación de obstáculos en un entorno de laberinto. El algoritmo incorporado en los robots fue diseñado con base en principios de coordinación y autoorganización, es decir, un grupo de agentes autónomos coordinan sus acciones para buscar y recuperar obstáculos del entorno a través de la cooperación. Para ello, se diseñaron dos tipos de agentes, organizadores y operadores. Los organizadores tratan de coordinar las acciones de los operadores, y estos últimos, tratan de recuperar todos los obstáculos en el medio ambiente. Cinco robots de cuatro ruedas fueron construidos desde cero utilizando Arduino Uno para los operadores, y Arduino Nano y NXP i.MX53 Quick Start Boards para los organizadores. Además, se utilizó una cámara aérea (fijada al techo) para proporcionar percepción visual a los robots. La comunicación se realizó a través de una pasarela entre el canal de 8bit RF y WiFi, para los operadores y los organizadores, respectivamente.Palabras Claves: Autoorganización, robots móviles, visión computacional

An Approach of Decision-Making Support Based on Collaborative Agents for a Large Distribution Sector

International audienceThis paper applies the multi-agent systems paradigm to collaborative coordination and negotiation in a global distribution supply chain. Multi-agent computational environments are suitable for a broad class of coordination and negotiation issues involving multiple autonomous or semiautonomous problem solving contexts. An agent-based distributed architecture is proposed for better management of rush unexpected orders for which the quantity of product cannot be delivered partially or completely from the available inventory. This type of orders can be generated by unexpected swings in demand or unexpected exceptions (problem of production, problem of transportation, etc.). This paper proposes a first architecture and discusses an industrial case study