A Survey and Analysis of Multi-Robot Coordination

International audienceIn the field of mobile robotics, the study of multi-robot systems (MRSs) has grown significantly in size and importance in recent years. Having made great progress in the development of the basic problems concerning single-robot control, many researchers shifted their focus to the study of multi-robot coordination. This paper presents a systematic survey and analysis of the existing literature on coordination, especially in multiple mobile robot systems (MMRSs). A series of related problems have been reviewed, which include a communication mechanism, a planning strategy and a decision-making structure. A brief conclusion and further research perspectives are given at the end of the paper

Social Roles and Baseline Proxemic Preferences for a Domestic Service Robot

© The Author(s) 2014. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and the source are credited. The work described in this paper was conducted within the EU Integrated Projects LIREC (LIving with Robots and intEractive Companions, funded by the European Commission under contract numbers FP7 215554, and partly funded by the ACCOMPANY project, a part of the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) under grant agreement n287624The goal of our research is to develop socially acceptable behavior for domestic robots in a setting where a user and the robot are sharing the same physical space and interact with each other in close proximity. Specifically, our research focuses on approach distances and directions in the context of a robot handing over an object to a userPeer reviewe

Deaf, Dumb, and Chatting Robots, Enabling Distributed Computation and Fault-Tolerance Among Stigmergic Robot

We investigate ways for the exchange of information (explicit communication) among deaf and dumb mobile robots scattered in the plane. We introduce the use of movement-signals (analogously to flight signals and bees waggle) as a mean to transfer messages, enabling the use of distributed algorithms among the robots. We propose one-to-one deterministic movement protocols that implement explicit communication. We first present protocols for synchronous robots. We begin with a very simple coding protocol for two robots. Based on on this protocol, we provide one-to-one communication for any system of n \geq 2 robots equipped with observable IDs that agree on a common direction (sense of direction). We then propose two solutions enabling one-to-one communication among anonymous robots. Since the robots are devoid of observable IDs, both protocols build recognition mechanisms using the (weak) capabilities offered to the robots. The first protocol assumes that the robots agree on a common direction and a common handedness (chirality), while the second protocol assumes chirality only. Next, we show how the movements of robots can provide implicit acknowledgments in asynchronous systems. We use this result to design asynchronous one-to-one communication with two robots only. Finally, we combine this solution with the schemes developed in synchronous settings to fit the general case of asynchronous one-to-one communication among any number of robots. Our protocols enable the use of distributing algorithms based on message exchanges among swarms of Stigmergic robots. Furthermore, they provides robots equipped with means of communication to overcome faults of their communication device

Towards formal models and languages for verifiable Multi-Robot Systems

Incorrect operations of a Multi-Robot System (MRS) may not only lead to unsatisfactory results, but can also cause economic losses and threats to safety. These threats may not always be apparent, since they may arise as unforeseen consequences of the interactions between elements of the system. This call for tools and techniques that can help in providing guarantees about MRSs behaviour. We think that, whenever possible, these guarantees should be backed up by formal proofs to complement traditional approaches based on testing and simulation. We believe that tailored linguistic support to specify MRSs is a major step towards this goal. In particular, reducing the gap between typical features of an MRS and the level of abstraction of the linguistic primitives would simplify both the specification of these systems and the verification of their properties. In this work, we review different agent-oriented languages and their features; we then consider a selection of case studies of interest and implement them useing the surveyed languages. We also evaluate and compare effectiveness of the proposed solution, considering, in particular, easiness of expressing non-trivial behaviour.Comment: Changed formattin

A Framework for Collaborative Multi-task, Multi-robot Missions

Robotics is a transformative technology that will empower our civilization for a new scale of human endeavors. Massive scale is only possible through the collaboration of individual or groups of robots. Collaboration allows specialization, meaning a multirobot system may accommodate heterogeneous platforms including human partners. This work develops a unified control architecture for collaborative missions comprised of multiple, multi-robot tasks. Using kinematic equations and Jacobian matrices, the system states are transformed into alternative control spaces which are more useful for the designer or more convenient for the operator. The architecture allows multiple tasks to be combined, composing tightly coordinated missions. Using this approach, the designer is able to compensate for non-ideal behavior in the appropriate space using whatever control scheme they choose. This work presents a general design methodology, including analysis techniques for relevant control metrics like stability, responsiveness, and disturbance rejection, which were missing in prior work. Multiple tasks may be combined into a collaborative mission. The unified motion control architecture merges the control space components for each task into a concise federated system to facilitate analysis and implementation. The task coordination function defines task commands as functions of mission commands and state values to create explicit closed-loop collaboration. This work presents analysis techniques to understand the effects of cross-coupling tasks. This work analyzes system stability for the particular control architecture and identifies an explicit condition to ensure stable switching when reallocating robots. We are unaware of any other automated control architectures that address large-scale collaborative systems composed of task-oriented multi-robot coalitions where relative spatial control is critical to mission performance. This architecture and methodology have been validated in experiments and in simulations, repeating earlier work and exploring new scenarios and. It can perform large-scale, complex missions via a rigorous design methodology