Adaptive Search Space Division
Foraging can be considered one of the key
issues in Cooperative Robotics. This task requires a set of robots to
inspect the world for possible targets, such as food, and deliver them
to a determined area, denoted as home.
Interference between Robots that are
performing the same task is one of the major problems in group
behavior. Robots act as greedy agents: In order fulfilling their own
goals, they often retard achievement by interfering with other Robots
that have the same goal.
This project focuses on assigning each Robot a
different area in space to look for pucks (targets). Once a
Robot has a puck, it delivers it to the neighboring area that is
closer to home . It is intended to minimize the
interference between robots by assigning them different work locations
in space. However, with this approach problems arise when one of the
Robots dies (stops working or becomes trapped in a hole).
Robots communicate , via radio, in order to
adapt their behavior to the status of other Robots. Messages like
``I'm alive'' or ``I'm moving''
are constantly sent to guarantee that the overall task will be
achieved. If one of the Robot dies, the rest of the living Robots will
modify their behavior and expand their searching areas, so that they
can cover the space left by the dead Robot.
Related Papers
- Miguel Schneider-Fontán and Maja J Mataric,
"Territorial Multi-Robot Task Division",
Accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation.
- Miguel Schneider-Fontán and Maja J Mataric,
"A Study of Territoriality: The Role of Critical Mass in
Adaptive Task Division"
in Proceedings, From Animals to Animats
4, Fourth International Conference on Simulation of Adaptive Behavior
(SAB-96), Pattie Maes, Maja Mataric, Jean-Arcady Meyer, Jordan Pollack,
and Stewart W. Wilson, eds,
MIT Press/Bradford Books 1996, 553-561.
- Miguel Schneider-Fontán and Maja J Mataric,
"The Role of Critical Mass in Multi-Robot Adaptive Task Division",
Brandeis University Computer Science Technical Report CS-95-187,
October 1996.
Miguel Schneider
Last modified: Tue Jul 7 03:03:45 EDT