Physical interference impact in multi-robot task allocation auction methods

  • Authors:
  • Jose Guerrero;Gabriel Oliver

  • Affiliations:
  • Universitat de les Illes Balears, Mathematics and Computer, Spain;Universitat de les Illes Balears, Mathematics and Computer, Spain

  • Venue:
  • DIS '06 Proceedings of the IEEE Workshop on Distributed Intelligent Systems: Collective Intelligence and Its Applications
  • Year:
  • 2006

Quantified Score

Hi-index 0.00

Visualization

Abstract

Task allocation is one of the main problems in multirobot systems. Among other factors, to get a good task allocation, we have to take into account the physical interference effects between robots, that is, when two or more robots want to access to the same point at the same time. This paper analyzes interference impact using auction methods, one of the most popular task allocation systems. We will show how the performance of the auction utility function can be improved if interference impact is included in it. We also provide a framework to simplify one of the main problems of all auction systems which is finding a good utility function. Our method has been tested using transport like tasks, where each object must be transported to a delivery point before a deadline. This is a simple task that is very useful to isolate the interference effects.