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Dynamically Formed Heterogeneous Robot Teams Performing Tightly-Coordinated Tasks
- Proceedings of the International Conference on Robotics and Automation
, 2006
"... As we progress towards a world where robots play an integral role in society, a critical problem that remains to be solved is the Pickup Team challenge; that is, dynamically formed heterogeneous robot teams executing coordinated tasks where little information is known a-priori about the tasks, the r ..."
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Cited by 52 (8 self)
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As we progress towards a world where robots play an integral role in society, a critical problem that remains to be solved is the Pickup Team challenge; that is, dynamically formed heterogeneous robot teams executing coordinated tasks where little information is known a-priori about the tasks, the robots, and the environments in which they will operate. Successful solutions to forming pickup teams will enable researchers to experiment with larger numbers of robots and enable industry to efficiently and cost-effectively integrate new robot technology with existing legacy teams. In this paper, we define the challenge of pickup teams and propose the treasure hunt domain for evaluating the performance of pickup teams. Additionally, we describe a basic implementation of a pickup team that can search and discover treasure in a previously unknown environment. We build on prior approaches in market-based task allocation and Plays for synchronized task execution, to allocate roles amongst robots in the pickup team, and to execute synchronized team actions to accomplish the treasure hunt task.
An integrated token-based algorithm for scalable coordination
- In AAMAS’05
, 2005
"... Efficient coordination among large numbers of heterogeneous agents promises to revolutionize the way in which some complex tasks, such as responding to urban disasters can be performed. However, state of the art coordination algorithms are not capable of achieving efficient and effective coordinatio ..."
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Cited by 36 (16 self)
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Efficient coordination among large numbers of heterogeneous agents promises to revolutionize the way in which some complex tasks, such as responding to urban disasters can be performed. However, state of the art coordination algorithms are not capable of achieving efficient and effective coordination when a team is very large. Building on recent successful token-based algorithms for task allocation and information sharing, we have developed an integrated and efficient approach to effective coordination of large scale teams. We use tokens to encapsulate anything that needs to be shared by the team, including information, tasks and resources. The tokens are efficiently routed through the team via the use of local decision theoretic models. Each token is used to improve the routing of other tokens leading to a dramatic performance improvement when the algorithms work together. We present results from an implementation of this approach which demonstrates its ability to coordinate large teams. 1.
Assignment of Dynamically Perceived Tasks by Token Passing In Multi-Robot Systems
- PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, SPECIAL ISSUE ON MULTI-ROBOT SYSTEMS
, 2006
"... The problem of assigning tasks to a group of robots acting in a dynamic environment is a fundamental issue for a Multi Robot System (MRS) and several techniques have been studied to address this problem. Such techniques usually rely on the assumption that tasks to be assigned are inserted into the ..."
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Cited by 16 (8 self)
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The problem of assigning tasks to a group of robots acting in a dynamic environment is a fundamental issue for a Multi Robot System (MRS) and several techniques have been studied to address this problem. Such techniques usually rely on the assumption that tasks to be assigned are inserted into the system in a coherent fashion. In this work we consider a scenario where tasks to be accomplished are perceived by the robots during mission execution. This issue
The first segway soccer experience: Towards peer-to-peer human-robot teams
- In First Annual Conference on Human-Robot Interactions (HRI ’06
, 2006
"... Robotic soccer is an adversarial multi-agent research domain, in which issues of perception, multiagent coordination and team strategy are explored. One area of interest investigates heterogeneous teams of humans and robots, where the teammates must coordinate not as master and slave, but as equal p ..."
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Cited by 16 (6 self)
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Robotic soccer is an adversarial multi-agent research domain, in which issues of perception, multiagent coordination and team strategy are explored. One area of interest investigates heterogeneous teams of humans and robots, where the teammates must coordinate not as master and slave, but as equal participants. We research this peer-to-peer question within the domain of Segway soccer, where teams of humans riding Segway HTs and robotic Segway RMPs coordinate together in competition against other human-robot teams. Beyond the task of physically enabling these robots to play soccer, a key issue in the development of such a heterogeneous team is determining the balance between human and robot player. The first ever Segway soccer competition occurred at the 2005 RoboCup US Open, where demonstrations where held between Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and the Neurosciences Institute (NSI). Through the execution of these soccer demonstrations, many of the challenges associated with maintaining equality within a peer-to-peer game were revealed. This paper chronicles our experience within the Segway soccer demonstrations at the 2005 US Open, and imparts our interpretation and analysis regarding what is needed to better attain this goal of teammate equality within the peer-to-peer research domain. We begin with an explanation of the motivations behind the Segway soccer and peer-to-peer research, providing details of the
Designing agent utilities for coordinated, scalable and robust multi-agent systems
- Challenges in the Coordination of Large Scale Multiagent Systems
, 2005
"... Summary. Coordinating the behavior of a large number of agents to achieve a system level goal poses unique design challenges. In particular, problems of scaling (number of agents in the thousands to tens of thousands), observability (agents have limited sensing capabilities), and robustness (the age ..."
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Cited by 11 (8 self)
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Summary. Coordinating the behavior of a large number of agents to achieve a system level goal poses unique design challenges. In particular, problems of scaling (number of agents in the thousands to tens of thousands), observability (agents have limited sensing capabilities), and robustness (the agents are unreliable) make it impossible to simply apply methods developed for small multi-agent systems composed of reliable agents. To address these problems, we present an approach based on deriving agent goals that are aligned with the overall system goal, and can be computed using information readily available to the agents. Then, each agent uses a simple reinforcement learning algorithm [26] to pursue its own goals. Because of the way in which those goals are derived, there is no need to use difficult to scale external mechanisms to force collaboration or coordination among the agents, or to ensure that agents actively attempt to appropriate the tasks of agents that suffered failures. To present these results in a concrete setting, we focus on the problem of finding the subset of a set of imperfect devices that results in the best aggregate device [5]. This is a large distributed agent coordination problem where each agent (e.g., device) needs to determine whether to be part of the aggregate device. Our results show that the approach proposed in this work provides improvements of over an order of magnitude over both traditional search methods and traditional multi-agent methods. Furthermore, the results show that even in extreme cases of agent failures (i.e., half the agents failed midway through the simulation) the system’s performance degrades gracefully and still outperforms a failure-free and centralized search algorithm. The results also show that the gains increase as the size of the system (e.g., number of agents) increases. This latter result is particularly encouraging and suggests that this method is ideally suited for domains where the number of agents is currently in the thousands and will reach tens or hundreds of thousands in the near future. 1
Scalable and reliable data delivery in mobile ad hoc sensor networks
- in ACM AAMAS
, 2006
"... This paper studies scalable data delivery algorithms in mobile ad hoc sensor networks with node and link failures. Many algorithms have been developed for data delivery and fusion in static microsensor networks, but most of them are not appropriate for mobile sensor networks due to their heavy traff ..."
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Cited by 11 (0 self)
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This paper studies scalable data delivery algorithms in mobile ad hoc sensor networks with node and link failures. Many algorithms have been developed for data delivery and fusion in static microsensor networks, but most of them are not appropriate for mobile sensor networks due to their heavy traffic and long latency. In this paper we propose an efficient and robust data delivery algorithm for distributed data fusion in mobile ad hoc sensor networks, where each node controls its data flows and learns routing decisions solely based on their local knowledge. We analyze the localized algorithm in a formal model and validate our model using simulations. The experiments indicate that controlled data delivery processes significantly increase the probability of relevant data being fused in the network even with limited local knowledge of each node and relatively small hops of data delivery.
A Catalogue of Decentralised Coordination Mechanisms for Designing Self-Organising Emergent Applications
- CW 458, DEP. OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
, 2006
"... There is little or no guidance to systematically design a selforganising emergent solution that achieves the desired macroscopic behaviour. This paper describes decentralised coordination mechanisms such as digital pheromones as design patterns, similar to patterns used in mainstream software engine ..."
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Cited by 11 (2 self)
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There is little or no guidance to systematically design a selforganising emergent solution that achieves the desired macroscopic behaviour. This paper describes decentralised coordination mechanisms such as digital pheromones as design patterns, similar to patterns used in mainstream software engineering. As a consequence, a structured consolidation of best practice in using each coordination mechanism becomes available to guide engineers in applying them, and to directly decide which mechanisms are promising to solve a certain problem. As such, self-organising emergent solutions can be engineered more systematically, which is illustrated in a packet delivery service application. This document includes extensive pattern descriptions for digital pheromones, gradient fields, market-based coordination, tag-based coordination, and token-based coordination.
Techniques and Directions for Building Very Large Agent Teams
, 2005
"... We have developed probabilistic algorithms that leverage the associates network for distributed plan instantiation, role allocation, information sharing and adjustable autonomy with a team. By developing such new algorithms, we have been able to build teams of hundreds of cooperating agents, and tes ..."
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Cited by 11 (0 self)
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We have developed probabilistic algorithms that leverage the associates network for distributed plan instantiation, role allocation, information sharing and adjustable autonomy with a team. By developing such new algorithms, we have been able to build teams of hundreds of cooperating agents, and test specific behaviors among tens of thousands of agents. In this paper, we describe the algorithms that we have developed, the tests that we subjected them to, and sketch some of the key challenges that remain to be addressed.
Dynamically formed human-robot teams performing coordinated tasks
- In AAAI Spring Symposium To Boldly Go Where No Human-Robot Team Has Gone Before
, 2006
"... In this new era of space exploration where human-robot teams are envisioned maintaining a long-term presence on other planets, effective coordination of these teams is paramount. Three critical research challenges that must be solved to realize this vision are the human-robot team challenge, the pic ..."
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Cited by 10 (3 self)
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In this new era of space exploration where human-robot teams are envisioned maintaining a long-term presence on other planets, effective coordination of these teams is paramount. Three critical research challenges that must be solved to realize this vision are the human-robot team challenge, the pickup-team challenge, and the effective humanrobot communication challenge. In this paper, we address these challenges, propose a novel approach towards solving these challenges, and situate our approach in the newly introduced treasure hunt domain.
Structural Aspects of the Evaluation of Agent Organizations
- In Coordination, Organizations, Institutions, and Norms in Agent Systems II. Lecture Notes on Computer Science
, 2007
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