Multiple Agent Architecture for a Multiple Robot System

Controlling systems with multiple robots is quickly becoming the next large hurdle that must be overcome for groups of robots to successfully function as a team. An agent oriented approach for this problem is presented in this thesis. By using an agent oriented method, the robots can act independently yet still work together. To be able to establish communities of robots, a basic agent oriented control system for each robot must first be implemented. This thesis introduces a novel method to create Physical Robot Agents, promoting a separation of cognitive and reactive behaviours into a two layer system. These layers are further abstracted into key subsections that are required for the Physical Robot Agents to function. To test this architecture, experiments are performed with physical robots to determine the feasibility of this approach. A real-time implementation of a Physical Robot Agent would greatly expand its field of use. The speed of internal communication is analyzed to validate the application of this architecture to real-time tasks. It is concluded that the Physical Robot Agents are well suited for multiple robot systems and that real-time applications are feasible

Multiple agent architecture for a multiple robot system

I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis. This is a true copy of the thesis, including any required final revisions, as accepted by my examiners. I understand that my thesis may be made electronically available to the public. ii Controlling systems with multiple robots is quickly becoming the next large hurdle that must be overcome for groups of robots to successfully function as a team. An agent oriented approach for this problem is presented in this thesis. By using an agent oriented method, the robots can act independently yet still work together. To be able to establish communities of robots, a basic agent oriented control system for each robot must first be implemented. This thesis introduces a novel method to create Physical Robot Agents, promoting a separation of cognitive and reactive behaviours into a two layer system. These layers are further abstracted into key subsections that are required for the Physical Robot Agents to function. To test this architecture, experiments are performed with physical robots to determine the feasibility of this approach

An Agent-Based Architecture for a Multi-Robot System

This paper presents an agent-based architecture for a multi-robot system. The proposed architecture combines the hierarchical and the decentralized approaches in order to increase the robustness of the multi-robot system to component failure and decrease the computation and communication load. Processes are split into two layers: a cognitive layer, where the higher brain functions take place, and an action layer, where the low level functions take place. It also addresses the use of cooperative software agents organized in hardware or software components. Each of these agents independently handles a small set of specialized tasks and cooperates to achieve system-level goals. The overall system behaviour emerges from the autonomous behaviours of the individual agents. The proposed architecture defines clear boundaries between the processes that occur within a robot. Experiments using mobile robots demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed architecture in facilitating the development of multi-robot cooperative behaviours