Multi-Robot Motion Planning by Incremental Coordination

In a recent study, it was shown that high failure rates in decoupled multi-robot motion planning makes the decoupled planning approach an unsuitable choice, in comparison to the centralized approach, in many practical instances. Motivated by this study, we devised a new multi-robot planning strategy in which we partially merge the two stages of the basic decoupled planning approach. Our experimental results show that this new strategy significantly improves upon the reliability of the decoupled planning approach. Overall in our tests, the new strategy outperforms both the centralized and decoupled planning approach, indicating that in practice it can be a better choice, than both the centralized and decoupled approach, for solving multi-robot planning problems

[1]  B. Faverjon,et al.  Probabilistic Roadmaps for Path Planning in High-Dimensional Con(cid:12)guration Spaces , 1996 .

[2]  Daniel Vallejo,et al.  OBPRM: an obstacle-based PRM for 3D workspaces , 1998 .

[3]  Tomás Lozano-Pérez,et al.  Deadlock-free and collision-free coordination of two robot manipulators , 1989, Proceedings, 1989 International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[4]  Charles W. Warren,et al.  Multiple robot path coordination using artificial potential fields , 1990, Proceedings., IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[5]  Jean-Claude Latombe,et al.  A Single-Query Bi-Directional Probabilistic Roadmap Planner with Lazy Collision Checking , 2001, ISRR.

[6]  S. Zucker,et al.  Toward Efficient Trajectory Planning: The Path-Velocity Decomposition , 1986 .

[7]  G. Swaminathan.  Robot Motion Planning , 2006 .

[8]  Boris Aronov,et al.  Motion Planning for Multiple Robots , 1998, SCG '98.

[9]  Steven M. LaValle,et al.  RRT-connect: An efficient approach to single-query path planning , 2000, Proceedings 2000 ICRA. Millennium Conference. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. Symposia Proceedings (Cat. No.00CH37065).

[10]  Tomás Lozano-Pérez,et al.  On multiple moving objects , 1986, Proceedings. 1986 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[11]  Kostas E. Bekris,et al.  Sampling-based roadmap of trees for parallel motion planning , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Robotics.

[12]  Mitul Saha,et al.  A slicing connection strategy for constructing PRMs in high-dimensional cspaces , 2006, Proceedings 2006 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2006. ICRA 2006..

[13]  Wolfram Burgard,et al.  Finding and Optimizing Solvable Priority Schemes for Decoupled Path Planning Techniques for Teams of Mobile Robots , 2002, PuK.

[14]  Stephen M. Rock,et al.  Dynamic Networks for Motion Planning in Multi-Robot Space Systems , 2003 .

[15]  Mark H. Overmars,et al.  Prioritized motion planning for multiple robots , 2005, 2005 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[16]  Tsai-Yen Li,et al.  Motion planning for a crowd of robots , 2003, 2003 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.03CH37422).

[17]  Steven M. LaValle,et al.  Optimal motion planning for multiple robots having independent goals , 1998, IEEE Trans. Robotics Autom..

[18]  Mario F. M. Campos,et al.  Decentralized motion planning for multiple robots subject to sensing and communication constraints , 2003 .

[19]  Thierry Fraichard,et al.  Trajectory planning in a dynamic workspace: a 'state-time space' approach , 1998, Adv. Robotics.

[20]  John H. Reif,et al.  Complexity of the mover's problem and generalizations , 1979, 20th Annual Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science (sfcs 1979).

[21]  Howie Choset,et al.  Principles of Robot Motion: Theory, Algorithms, and Implementation ERRATA!!!! 1 , 2007 .

[22]  Jean-Claude Latombe,et al.  Using a PRM planner to compare centralized and decoupled planning for multi-robot systems , 2002, Proceedings 2002 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.02CH37292).