Authors:
Guido Zarrella
;
Robert Gaimari
and
Bradley Goodman
Affiliation:
The MITRE Corporation, United States
Keyword(s):
Market-based multi-robot planning, intelligent control systems, distributed control, planning and scheduling, tight coordination, task deadlines, decision support.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Artificial Intelligence
;
Autonomous Agents
;
Control and Supervision Systems
;
Distributed Control Systems
;
Formal Methods
;
Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics
;
Intelligent Control Systems and Optimization
;
Mobile Robots and Autonomous Systems
;
Planning and Scheduling
;
Reasoning about Action for Intelligent Robots
;
Robotics and Automation
;
Simulation and Modeling
;
Software Agents for Intelligent Control Systems
;
Symbolic Systems
Abstract:
Urban search and rescue, reconnaissance, manufacturing, and team sports are all problem domains requiring multiple agents that are able to collaborate intelligently to achieve a team goal. In these domains task planning and assignment can be challenging to robots and humans alike. In this paper we introduce a market-based distributed task planning algorithm that has been adapted for heterogeneous, tightly coordinated robots in domains with time deadlines. We also report the results of our experiments comparing the robots' decisions with the decisions produced by ten teams of humans performing an identical search and rescue task. The outcome provides insight into the types of problems for which information technology can add value by providing decision support for human problem solvers.