Decentralizing Coordination in Open Vehicle Fleets for Scalable and Dynamic Task Allocation

One of the major challenges in the coordination of large, open, collaborative, and commercial vehicle fleets is dynamic task allocation. Self-concerned individually rational vehicle drivers have both local and global objectives, which require coordination using some fair and efficient task allocation method. In this paper, we review the literature on scalable and dynamic task allocation focusing on deterministic and dynamic two-dimensional linear assignment problems. We focus on multiagent system representation of open vehicle fleets where dynamically appearing vehicles are represented by software agents that should be allocated to a set of dynamically appearing tasks. We give a comparison and critical analysis of recent research results focusing on centralized, distributed, and decentralized solution approaches. Moreover, we propose mathematical models for dynamic versions of the following assignment problems well known in combinatorial optimization: the assignment problem, bottleneck assignment problem, fair matching problem, dynamic minimum deviation assignment problem, $\sum_{k}$-assignment problem, the semiassignment problem, the assignment problem with side constraints, and the assignment problem while recognizing agent qualification; all while considering the main aspect of open vehicle fleets: random arrival of tasks and vehicles (agents) that may become available after assisting previous tasks or by participating in the fleet at times based on individual interest

A Decentralized Multi-Agent Coordination Method for Dynamic and Constrained Production Planning

[EN] In the capacitated production planning problem, quantities of products need to be determined at consecutive periods within a given time horizon when product demands, costs, and production capacities vary through time. We focus on a general formulation of this problem where each product is produced in one step and setup cost is paid at each period of production. Additionally, products can be anticipated or backordered in respect to the demand period. We propose a computationally efficient decentralized approach based on the spillover effect relating to the accumulation of production costs of each product demand through time. The performance of the spillover algorithm is compared against the state-of-the-art mixed integer programming branch-and-bound solver CPLEX 12.8 considering optimality gap and computational time.This work is supported by: the Spanish MINECO projects RTI2018-095390-B-C33 (MCIU/AEI/FEDER, UE) and TIN2017- 88476-C2-1-R, the French ADEME project E-Logistics, and an STSM Grant funded by the European ICT COST Action IC1406, cHiPSet.Lujak, M.; Fernandez, A.; Onaindia De La Rivaherrera, E. (2020). A Decentralized Multi-Agent Coordination Method for Dynamic and Constrained Production Planning. International Foundation for Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems. 1913-1915. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/179784S1913191

On Multi-Agent Coordination of Agri-Robot Fleets

International audienc

Agriculture fleet vehicle routing: A decentralised and dynamic problem

To date, the research on agriculture vehicles in general and Agriculture Mobile Robots (AMRs) in particular has focused on a single vehicle (robot) and its agriculture-specific capabilities. Very little work has explored the coordination of fleets of such vehicles in the daily execution of farming tasks. This is especially the case when considering overall fleet performance, its efficiency and scalability in the context of highly automated agriculture vehicles that perform tasks throughout multiple fields potentially owned by different farmers and/or enterprises. The potential impact of automating AMR fleet coordination on commercial agriculture is immense. Major conglomerates with large and heterogeneous fleets of agriculture vehicles could operate on huge land areas without human operators to effect precision farming. In this paper, we propose the Agriculture Fleet Vehicle Routing Problem (AF-VRP) which, to the best of our knowledge, differs from any other version of the Vehicle Routing Problem studied so far. We focus on the dynamic and decentralised version of this problem applicable in environments involving multiple agriculture machinery and farm owners where concepts of fairness and equity must be considered. Such a problem combines three related problems: the dynamic assignment problem, the dynamic 3-index assignment problem and the capacitated arc routing problem. We review the state-of-the-art and categorise solution approaches as centralised, distributed and decentralised, based on the underlining decision-making context. Finally, we discuss open challenges in applying distributed and decentralised coordination approaches to this problem

Dynamic coordination in fleet management systems: Toward smart cyber fleets

Fleet management systems are commonly used to coordinate mobility and delivery services in a broad variety of domains. However, their traditional top-down control architecture becomes a bottleneck in open and dynamic environments, where scalability, proactiveness, and autonomy are becoming key factors for their success. Here, the authors present an abstract event-based architecture for fleet management systems that supports tailoring dynamic control regimes for coordinating fleet vehicles, and illustrate it for the case of medical emergency management. Then, they go one step ahead in the transition toward automatic or driverless fleets, by conceiving fleet management systems in terms of cyber-physical systems, and putting forward the notion of cyber fleets. © 2014 IEEE.This work has been partially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the projects “Agreement Technologies” (grant CSD2007-0022; CONSOLIDER-INGENIO 2010), “intelligent Human-Agent Societies” (grant TIN2012-36586-C03-02), and “Smart Delivery” (grant RTC-2014-1850-4).Peer Reviewe

Towards Agrirobot Digital Twins: Agri-RO5 A Multi-Agent Architecture for Dynamic Fleet Simulation

[EN] In this paper, we propose a multi-agent-based architecture for a Unity3D simulation of dynamic agrirobot-fleet-coordination methods. The architecture is based on a Robot Operating System (ROS) and Agrobots-SIM package that extends the existing package Patrolling SIM made for multi-robot patrolling. The Agrobots-SIM package accommodates dynamic multi-robot task allocation and vehicle routing considering limited robot battery autonomy. Moreover, it accommodates the dynamic assignment of implements to robots for the execution of heterogeneous tasks. The system coordinates task assignment and vehicle routing in real time and responds to unforeseen contingencies during simulation considering dynamic updates of the data related to the environment, tasks, implements, and robots. Except for the ROS and Agrobots-SIM package, other crucial components of the architecture include SPADE3 middleware for developing and executing multi-agent decision making and the FIVE framework that allows us to seamlessly define the environment and incorporate the Agrobots-SIM algorithms to be validated into SPADE agents inhabiting such an environment. We compare the proposed simulation architecture with the conventional approach to 3D multi-robot simulation in Gazebo. The functioning of the simulation architecture is demonstrated in several use-case experiments. Even though resource consumption and community support are still an open challenge in Unity3D, the proposed Agri-RO5 architecture gives better results in terms of simulation realism and scalability.This work was partially supported by grants PID2021-123673OB-C32, PID2021-123673OBC33, TED2021-131295B-C31 and TED2021-131295B-C33 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by ERDF A way of making Europe and the European Union NextGenerationEU/PRTR , respectively, as well as the Agrobots Project funded by the Community of Madrid, Spain, and the AGROBOTIX Project funded by the University Rey Juan Carlos.Gutiérrez Cejudo, J.; Enguix Andrés, F.; Lujak, M.; Carrascosa Casamayor, C.; Fernandez, A.; Hérnandez López, L. (2024). Towards Agrirobot Digital Twins: Agri-RO5 A Multi-Agent Architecture for Dynamic Fleet Simulation. Electronics. 13(1). https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics1301008013

Towards smart open dynamic fleets

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33509-4_32Nowadays, vehicles of modern fleets are endowed with advanced devices that allow the operators of a control center to have global knowledge about fleet status, including existing incidents. Fleet management systems support real-time decision making at the control center so as to maximize fleet perform‐ ance. In this paper, setting out from our experience in dynamic coordination of fleet management systems, we focus on fleets that are open, dynamic and highly autonomous. Furthermore, we propose how to cope with the scalability problem as the number of vehicles grows. We present our proposed architecture for open fleet management systems and use the case of taxi services as example of our proposal.Work partially supported by Spanish Government through the projects iHAS (grant TIN2012-36586-C03) and SURF (grant TIN2015-65515-C4-X-R), the Autonomous Region of Madrid through grant S2013/ICE-3019 (“MOSI-AGIL-CM”, cofunded by EU Structural Funds FSE and FEDER) and URJC-Santander (30VCPIGI15).Billhardt, H.; Fernández, A.; Lujak, M.; Ossowski, S.; Julian Inglada, VJ.; Paz, JFD.; Hernández, JZ. (2016). Towards smart open dynamic fleets. En Multi-Agent Systems and Agreement Technologies. Springer. 410-424. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33509-4_32S41042