Plan-Based Configuration of a Group of Robots

We consider groups of autonomous robots in which robots can help each other by offering information-producing functionalities. A functional configuration is a way to allocate and connect functionalities among robots. In general, different configurations can be used to solve the same task, depending on the current situation. In this paper, we define the idea of functional configuration, and we propose a plan-based approach to automatically generate a preferred configuration for a given task, environment, and set of resources. To illustrate these ideas, we show a simple experiment in which two robots mutually help each-other to cross a door.

[1]  Michael Jenkin,et al.  A Taxonomy of Multirobot Systems , 2003 .

[2]  Lynne E. Parker,et al.  ASyMTRe: Automated Synthesis of Multi-Robot Task Solutions through Software Reconfiguration , 2005, Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[3]  Agostino Poggi,et al.  Multiagent Systems , 2006, Intelligenza Artificiale.

[4]  Hector Muñoz-Avila,et al.  SHOP: Simple Hierarchical Ordered Planner , 1999, IJCAI.

[5]  Xiaomeng Su,et al.  A Survey of Automated Web Service Composition Methods , 2004, SWSWPC.

[6]  Manuela M. Veloso,et al.  Task Decomposition, Dynamic Role Assignment, and Low-Bandwidth Communication for Real-Time Strategic Teamwork , 1999, Artif. Intell..

[7]  Vijay Kumar,et al.  A Paradigm for Dynamic Coordination of Multiple Robots , 2004, Auton. Robots.

[8]  Guy L. Steele,et al.  Common LISP: the language, 2nd Edition , 1990 .

[9]  Gaurav S. Sukhatme,et al.  Whistling in the dark: cooperative trail following in uncertain localization space , 2000, AGENTS '00.

[10]  Rachid Alami,et al.  M+: a scheme for multi-robot cooperation through negotiated task allocation and achievement , 1999, Proceedings 1999 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.99CH36288C).

[11]  Lars Karlsson,et al.  Conditional progressive planning under uncertainty , 2001, IJCAI.

[12]  Steven Vajda,et al.  The Theory of Linear Economic Models , 1960 .

[13]  U. Fischbacher,et al.  The nature of human altruism , 2003, Nature.

[14]  Alessandro Saffiotti,et al.  Multi-robot team coordination using desirabilities , 2000 .

[15]  Anthony Stentz,et al.  A comparative study between centralized, market-based, and behavioral multirobot coordination approaches , 2003, Proceedings 2003 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2003) (Cat. No.03CH37453).

[16]  Lynne E. Parker,et al.  Tightly-coupled navigation assistance in heterogeneous multi-robot teams , 2004, 2004 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) (IEEE Cat. No.04CH37566).

[17]  Maja J. Mataric,et al.  Sold!: auction methods for multirobot coordination , 2002, IEEE Trans. Robotics Autom..

[18]  Sarit Kraus,et al.  Methods for Task Allocation via Agent Coalition Formation , 1998, Artif. Intell..

[19]  Nicholas R. Jennings,et al.  A Roadmap of Agent Research and Development , 2004, Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems.

[20]  Nidhi Kalra,et al.  Hoplites: A Market-Based Framework for Planned Tight Coordination in Multirobot Teams , 2005, Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[21]  Luiz Chaimowicz,et al.  ROCI: a distributed framework for multi-robot perception and control , 2003, Proceedings 2003 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2003) (Cat. No.03CH37453).

[22]  Manuela Veloso,et al.  Multi-Robot Dynamic Role Assignment and Coordination Through Shared Potential Fields , 2002 .

[23]  Ronald C. Arkin,et al.  Motor schema based navigation for a mobile robot: An approach to programming by behavior , 1987, Proceedings. 1987 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[24]  Alessandro Saffiotti,et al.  Dynamic configuration of a team of robots , 2004 .

[25]  Jörg Hoffmann,et al.  FF: The Fast-Forward Planning System , 2001, AI Mag..

[26]  Lynne E. Parker.  Toward the automated synthesis of cooperative mobile robot teams , 1999, Other Conferences.

[27]  Kazuhiro Kosuge,et al.  A pushing leader based decentralized control method for cooperative object transportation , 2004, 2004 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) (IEEE Cat. No.04CH37566).

[28]  Elizabeth Sklar,et al.  Exploring Auction Mechanisms for Role Assignment in Teams of Autonomous Robots , 2004, RoboCup.

[29]  Reid G. Simmons,et al.  A task description language for robot control , 1998, Proceedings. 1998 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. Innovations in Theory, Practice and Applications (Cat. No.98CH36190).

[30]  Daniele Nardi,et al.  Multirobot systems: a classification focused on coordination , 2004, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Part B (Cybernetics).

[31]  Adam T. Hayes,et al.  Self-organized flocking with agent failure: Off-line optimization and demonstration with real robots , 2002, Proceedings 2002 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.02CH37292).

[32]  Maja J. Mataric,et al.  Multi-robot task allocation: analyzing the complexity and optimality of key architectures , 2003, 2003 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.03CH37422).

[33]  Victor R. Lesser,et al.  Cooperative Multiagent Systems: A Personal View of the State of the Art , 1999, IEEE Trans. Knowl. Data Eng..

[34]  Licentiate Thesis,et al.  Plan-Based Configuration of a Group of Robots , 2006 .

[35]  Toshio Fukuda,et al.  Approach to the dynamically reconfigurable robotic system , 1988, J. Intell. Robotic Syst..

[36]  Jana Koehler,et al.  Web Service Composition - Current Solutions and Open Problems , 2003 .

[37]  Anthony Stentz,et al.  A Market Approach to Multirobot Coordination , 2001 .

[38]  Hyacinth S. Nwana,et al.  2 Multi-Agent Systems : Promises and Reality , 1999 .

[39]  Victor Lesser,et al.  The IPUS blackboard architecture as a framework for computational auditory scene analysis , 1998 .

[40]  Lynne E. Parker,et al.  Enabling Autonomous Sensor-Sharing for Tightly-Coupled Cooperative Tasks , 2005 .

[41]  Trey Smith,et al.  A Layered Architecture for Coordination of Mobile Robots , 2002 .

[42]  Edmund H. Durfee,et al.  Coherent Cooperation Among Communicating Problem Solvers , 1987, IEEE Transactions on Computers.

[43]  Chris Kirkwood-Watts,et al.  Distributed Mobile Robotics by the Method of Dynamic Teams , 1998, DARS.

[44]  Bruce Randall Donald,et al.  Distributed manipulation of multiple objects using ropes , 2000, Proceedings 2000 ICRA. Millennium Conference. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. Symposia Proceedings (Cat. No.00CH37065).

[45]  Jr. Guy L. Steele,et al.  Common LISP: the language (2nd ed.) , 1990 .

[46]  Alessandro Saffiotti,et al.  Can Emil help Pippi , 2005 .

[47]  Lynne E. Parker,et al.  THE EFFECT OF HETEROGENEITY IN TEAMS OF 100+ MOBILE ROBOTS , 2008 .

[48]  John McCarthy,et al.  Recursive functions of symbolic expressions and their computation by machine, Part I , 1960, Commun. ACM.

[49]  Gerhard Weiss,et al.  Multiagent Systems , 1999 .

[50]  V. Clement,et al.  Supervision of Perception Tasks for Autonomous Systems: the Ocapi Approach , 1992, Proceedings of the Third Annual Conference of AI, Simulation, and Planning in High Autonomy Systems 'Integrating Perception, Planning and Action'..

[51]  Lei Zhang,et al.  Task allocation via multi-agent coalition formation: taxonomy, algorithms and complexity , 2003, Proceedings. 15th IEEE International Conference on Tools with Artificial Intelligence.

[52]  Morisset Benoit,et al.  Robel: synthesizing and controlling complex robust robot behaviors , 2004 .

[53]  Bruce Randall Donald,et al.  Moving furniture with teams of autonomous robots , 1995, Proceedings 1995 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. Human Robot Interaction and Cooperative Robots.

[54]  Bruce Randall Donald,et al.  On Information Invariants in Robotics , 1995, Artif. Intell..

[55]  Lynne E. Parker,et al.  ALLIANCE: an architecture for fault tolerant multirobot cooperation , 1998, IEEE Trans. Robotics Autom..

[56]  Rama Chellappa,et al.  Knowledge-based control of vision systems , 1999, Image Vis. Comput..

[57]  Nidhi Kalra,et al.  Hoplites: A Market Framework for Complex Tight Coordination in Multi-Agent Teams , 2004 .

[58]  Alessandro Saffiotti,et al.  A Multivalued Logic Approach to Integrating Planning and Control , 1995, Artif. Intell..

[59]  Randall Davis,et al.  Negotiation as a Metaphor for Distributed Problem Solving , 1988, Artif. Intell..

[60]  Vipin Kumar,et al.  Algorithms for Constraint-Satisfaction Problems: A Survey , 1992, AI Mag..

[61]  Ingo J. Timm,et al.  Ontology-Based Capability Management for Distributed Problem Solving in the Manufacturing Domain , 2003, MATES.

[62]  Lynne E. Parker,et al.  Distributed multi-robot coalitions through ASyMTRe-D , 2005, 2005 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[63]  Vijay Kumar,et al.  A Framework and Architecture for Multirobot Coordination , 2000, International Symposium on Experimental Robotics.

[64]  Fang Tang,et al.  Coalescent multi-robot teaming through ASyMTRe: a formal analysis , 2005, ICAR '05. Proceedings., 12th International Conference on Advanced Robotics, 2005..

[65]  A. Stentz,et al.  Market-based Approaches for Coordination of Multi-robot Teams at Different Granularities of Interaction , 2004 .

[66]  Hrand Aghazarian,et al.  Precision Manipulation with Cooperative Robots , 2005 .

[67]  Joachim Peer,et al.  Web Service Composition as AI Planning { a Survey ⁄ , 2005 .

[68]  Mark Yim,et al.  Indoor automation with many mobile robots , 1990, EEE International Workshop on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Towards a New Frontier of Applications.

[69]  Alessandro Saffiotti,et al.  PEIS ecologies: ambient intelligence meets autonomous robotics , 2005, sOc-EUSAI '05.

[70]  Francesco Mondada,et al.  Physical connections and cooperation in swarm robotics , 2004 .

[71]  Reid G. Simmons,et al.  First Results in the Coordination of Heterogeneous Robots for Large-Scale Assembly , 2000, ISER.

[72]  Lynne E. Parker,et al.  Multi-Robot Systems. From Swarms to Intelligent Automata Volume III , 2005 .

[73]  Maja J. Mataric,et al.  Broadcast of Local Elibility for Multi-Target Observation , 2000, DARS.

[74]  Tucker R. Balch.  The impact of diversity on performance in multi-robot foraging , 1999, AGENTS '99.

[75]  Anthony Stentz,et al.  Complex Task Allocation For Multiple Robots , 2005, Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.