There has been increased research interest in systems composed of multiple autonomous mobile robots exhibiting cooperative behavior. Groups of mobile robots are constructed, with an aim to studying such issues as group architecture, resource conflict, origin of cooperation, learning, and geometric problems. As yet, few applications of cooperative robotics have been reported, and supporting theory is still in its formative stages. In this paper, we give a critical survey of existing works and discuss open problems in this field, emphasizing the various theoretical issues that arise in the study of cooperative robotics. We describe the intellectual heritages that have guided early research, as well as possible additions to the set of existing motivations.

Cooperative mobile robotics: antecedents and directions

There has been increased research interest in systems composed of multiple autonomous mobile robots exhibiting collective behavior. Groups of mobile robots are constructed, with an aim to studying such issues as group architecture, resource conflict, origin of cooperation, learning, and geometric problems. As yet, few applications of collective robotics have been reported, and supporting theory is still in its formative stages. In this paper, the authors give a critical survey of existing works and discuss open problems in this field, emphasizing the various theoretical issues that arise in the study of cooperative robotics. The authors describe the intellectual heritages that have guided early research, as well as possible additions to the set of existing motivations.

/pdf/cooperative-mobile-robotics-antecedents-and-directions-18nltan2ev.pdf

This paper handles the problem of collision avoidance in a multi-robot environment. To solve this problem, the motion processes of the mobile robots are modelled in space-time. Since the robots are autonomous and communication is non-deterministic, there is temporal uncertainty in addition to spatial uncertainty. The paper presents a method to model both uncertainty components in a homogeneous way. It is shown, that it is not sufficient to guarantee a spatial security distance between the robots. Distances in space-time and space-time vectors must be considered. The main result of this paper is a straightforward and efficient solution to the problem of collision avoidance between up to three mobile robots by applying a space-time displacement vector. The solution is based on space-time, which is a helpful view onto our world in relativity theory and quantum physics. Space-time methods are also very valuable in Robotics, especially for problems in dynamic environments and for motion coordination of mobile robots. Practical experiments with up to two robots, and simulations of up to three robots have been performed and are reported.

Collision avoidance by using space-time representations of motion processes

This paper presents a practical scheme for coordinating multiple mobile robots based on inter-robot communication (IRC). Two kinds of IRC protocols, called link protocol and conversation protocol respectively in this paper, are designed. Based on these protocols, a coordination protocol is developed which enables the robots to detect conflicts among their motion plans in a local region and then to solve the conflicts. Taking a transport scenario as an example, we show the process of our algorithm to deal with conflict situations on traffic lanes and at intersections. A wireless, asynchronous inter-robot communication system is developed using infrared wave as transmission medium. A test system with two laboratory mobile robots and the planned tests are described.

Coordinating Multiple Mobile Robots Through Local Inter-Robot Communication

As a sub-theme of the TITech COE/SMS research project, we began the Super-Mechano Colony (SMC) project at the end of last year, addressing a new stage of collective robotics. After a short review of the related study fields, the motivation and the objective of the SMC project is described. Then, the current study plan of the SMC project is presented briefly. Finally, some preliminary study results for this project is reported.

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/6569/17812/00823176.pdf

On sensing and control methods for super-mechano colonies

Crossings represent a classical example for the conflict regions of mobile robot systems. Two robots in a crossing situation are considered where the priorities and sequences of passing have been determined beforehand. Communication and sensing are regarded as an ideal combination of data sources for the collision avoidance control process. Nevertheless, in this case, temporal uncertainties have to be considered in parallel to the spatial uncertainty of sensing and localisation. The event transformation into the local space-time coordinate frame of a robot is introduced as a major element of the iterative process to reduce the sources of uncertainty. This transform is the basic part of the collision avoidance control procedure. >

M. Rude

Papers

Cooperation of mobile robots by event transforms into local space-time