Analysis of Dynamic Task Allocation in Multi-Robot Systems

Dynamic task allocation is an essential requirement for multi-robot systems operating in unknown dynamic environments. It allows robots to change their behavior in response to environmental changes or actions of other robots in order to improve overall system performance. Emergent coordination algorithms for task allocation that use only local sensing and no direct communication between robots are attractive because they are robust and scalable. However, a lack of formal analysis tools makes emergent coordination algorithms difficult to design. In this paper we present a mathematical model of a general dynamic task allocation mechanism. Robots using this mechanism have to choose between two types of task, and the goal is to achieve a desired task division in the absence of explicit communication and global knowledge. Robots estimate the state of the environment from repeated local observations and decide which task to choose based on these observations. We model the robots and observations as stochastic processes and study the dynamics of the collective behavior. Specifically, we analyze the effect that the number of observations and the choice of the decision function have on the performance of the system. The mathematical models are validated in a multi-robot multi-foraging scenario. The model's predictions agree very closely with experimental results from sensor-based simulations.Comment: Preprint version of the paper published in International Journal of Robotics, March 2006, Volume 25, pp. 225-24

Novel Artificial Human Optimization Field Algorithms - The Beginning

New Artificial Human Optimization (AHO) Field Algorithms can be created from scratch or by adding the concept of Artificial Humans into other existing Optimization Algorithms. Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) has been very popular for solving complex optimization problems due to its simplicity. In this work, new Artificial Human Optimization Field Algorithms are created by modifying existing PSO algorithms with AHO Field Concepts. These Hybrid PSO Algorithms comes under PSO Field as well as AHO Field. There are Hybrid PSO research articles based on Human Behavior, Human Cognition and Human Thinking etc. But there are no Hybrid PSO articles which based on concepts like Human Disease, Human Kindness and Human Relaxation. This paper proposes new AHO Field algorithms based on these research gaps. Some existing Hybrid PSO algorithms are given a new name in this work so that it will be easy for future AHO researchers to find these novel Artificial Human Optimization Field Algorithms. A total of 6 Artificial Human Optimization Field algorithms titled "Human Safety Particle Swarm Optimization (HuSaPSO)", "Human Kindness Particle Swarm Optimization (HKPSO)", "Human Relaxation Particle Swarm Optimization (HRPSO)", "Multiple Strategy Human Particle Swarm Optimization (MSHPSO)", "Human Thinking Particle Swarm Optimization (HTPSO)" and "Human Disease Particle Swarm Optimization (HDPSO)" are tested by applying these novel algorithms on Ackley, Beale, Bohachevsky, Booth and Three-Hump Camel Benchmark Functions. Results obtained are compared with PSO algorithm.Comment: 25 pages, 41 figure

Route Planning in Transportation Networks

We survey recent advances in algorithms for route planning in transportation networks. For road networks, we show that one can compute driving directions in milliseconds or less even at continental scale. A variety of techniques provide different trade-offs between preprocessing effort, space requirements, and query time. Some algorithms can answer queries in a fraction of a microsecond, while others can deal efficiently with real-time traffic. Journey planning on public transportation systems, although conceptually similar, is a significantly harder problem due to its inherent time-dependent and multicriteria nature. Although exact algorithms are fast enough for interactive queries on metropolitan transit systems, dealing with continent-sized instances requires simplifications or heavy preprocessing. The multimodal route planning problem, which seeks journeys combining schedule-based transportation (buses, trains) with unrestricted modes (walking, driving), is even harder, relying on approximate solutions even for metropolitan inputs.Comment: This is an updated version of the technical report MSR-TR-2014-4, previously published by Microsoft Research. This work was mostly done while the authors Daniel Delling, Andrew Goldberg, and Renato F. Werneck were at Microsoft Research Silicon Valle

New numerical approaches for modeling thermochemical convection in a compositionally stratified fluid

Seismic imaging of the mantle has revealed large and small scale heterogeneities in the lower mantle; specifically structures known as large low shear velocity provinces (LLSVP) below Africa and the South Pacific. Most interpretations propose that the heterogeneities are compositional in nature, differing in composition from the overlying mantle, an interpretation that would be consistent with chemical geodynamic models. Numerical modeling of persistent compositional interfaces presents challenges, even to state-of-the-art numerical methodology. For example, some numerical algorithms for advecting the compositional interface cannot maintain a sharp compositional boundary as the fluid migrates and distorts with time dependent fingering due to the numerical diffusion that has been added in order to maintain the upper and lower bounds on the composition variable and the stability of the advection method. In this work we present two new algorithms for maintaining a sharper computational boundary than the advection methods that are currently openly available to the computational mantle convection community; namely, a Discontinuous Galerkin method with a Bound Preserving limiter and a Volume-of-Fluid interface tracking algorithm. We compare these two new methods with two approaches commonly used for modeling the advection of two distinct, thermally driven, compositional fields in mantle convection problems; namely, an approach based on a high-order accurate finite element method advection algorithm that employs an artificial viscosity technique to maintain the upper and lower bounds on the composition variable as well as the stability of the advection algorithm and the advection of particles that carry a scalar quantity representing the location of each compositional field. All four of these algorithms are implemented in the open source FEM code ASPECT