Multiagent Mission Specification and Execution

  • Authors:

  • Douglas C. MacKenzie;Ronald Arkin;Jonathan M. Cameron

  • Affiliations:

  • Mobile Robot Laboratory, College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332/ E-mail: doug&commat/cc.gatech.edu, arkin&commat/cc.gatech.edu;Mobile Robot Laboratory, College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332/ E-mail: doug&commat/cc.gatech.edu, arkin&commat/cc.gatech.edu;Jet Propulsion Laboratory, MS 198-326, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109/ E-mail: jonathan.m.cameron&commat/jpl.nasa.gov

  • Venue:
  • Autonomous Robots
  • Year:
  • 1997

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Abstract

Specifying a reactive behavioral configuration for use by amultiagent team requires both a careful choice of the behavior set and thecreation of a temporal chain of behaviors which executes the mission. Thisdifficult task is simplified by applying an object-oriented approach to thedesign of the mission using a construction called an assemblage and amethodology called temporal sequencing. Theassemblage construct allows building high level primitives which provide abstractions for the designer.Assemblages consist of groups of basic behaviors and coordination mechanisms that allow the group to be treated as a new coherent behavior. Uponinstantiation, the assemblage is parameterized based on the specific missionrequirements. Assemblages can be re-parameterized and used in other stateswithin a mission or archived as high level primitives for use in subsequentprojects. Temporal sequencing partitions the mission into discrete operatingstates with perceptual triggers causing transitions between those states.Several smaller independent configurations (assemblages) can then be createdwhich each implement one state. The Societal Agenttheory is presentedas a basis for constructions of this form. The Configuration DescriptionLanguage (CDL) is developed to capture the recursive composition ofconfigurations in an architecture- and robot-independent fashion. TheMissionLab system, an implementationbased on CDL, supports the graphical construction of configurations using avisual editor. Various multiagent missions are demonstrated in simulation andon our Denning robots using these tools.