Recent Advances in Multi-Robot Systems: Models, Algorithms, and Applications

A special issue of Robotics (ISSN 2218-6581).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 June 2015) | Viewed by 18506

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Computer Science, University of Nebraska, Omaha, NE 68182, USA
Interests: multi-robot systems; coordination and path planning; multi-agent decision making; swarm robotics; game theory

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The past decade has seen a substantial growth in robotics research in the area of multi-robot systems. As compared to systems using individual robots, multi-robot systems can offer significant improvements in terms of the time and energy required to complete tasks. Multi-robot systems are also more reliable as they are more robust than individual robots. To date, several technologies have been developed for multi-robot systems focusing on coverage path planning, exploration and mapping, task allocation, and coalition and team formation. Multi-robot systems have also been deployed in several robotic applications including unmanned search and rescue, nuclear waste cleanup, and environmental monitoring. Despite their initial success, there are several challenges in developing and deploying multi-robot systems that need to be solved before they can be seamlessly adopted for a wider variety of automation tasks. This Special Issue plans to advance the state-of-the-art in multi-robot systems through research articles that provide a comprehensive overview of the challenges and recent advances in multi-robot systems from various computational and engineering aspects. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, coordination models and algorithms for multi-robot systems, multi-robot path planning and task planning, multi-robot learning, networking and wireless communication techniques for multi-robot systems, multi-robot SLAM, heterogeneous multi-robot systems, swarming and modular robot systems, cloud robotics and real-world applications of multi-robot systems.

Dr. Prithviraj (Raj) Dasgupta
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • multi-robot systems
  • coordination
  • coverage
  • learning, swarm and modular robotics

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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15987 KiB  
Article
IMPERA: Integrated Mission Planning for Multi-Robot Systems
by Daniel Saur and Kurt Geihs
Robotics 2015, 4(4), 435-463; https://doi.org/10.3390/robotics4040435 - 30 Oct 2015
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 9997
Abstract
This paper presents the results of the project IMPERA (Integrated Mission Planning for Distributed Robot Systems). The goal of IMPERA was to realize an extraterrestrial exploration scenario using a heterogeneous multi-robot system. The main challenge was the development of a multi-robot planning and [...] Read more.
This paper presents the results of the project IMPERA (Integrated Mission Planning for Distributed Robot Systems). The goal of IMPERA was to realize an extraterrestrial exploration scenario using a heterogeneous multi-robot system. The main challenge was the development of a multi-robot planning and plan execution architecture. The robot team consists of three heterogeneous robots, which have to explore an unknown environment and collect lunar drill samples. The team activities are described using the language ALICA (A Language for Interactive Agents). Furthermore, we use the mission planning system pRoPhEt MAS (Reactive Planning Engine for Multi-Agent Systems) to provide an intuitive interface to generate team activities. Therefore, we define the basic skills of our team with ALICA and define the desired goal states by using a logic description. Based on the skills, pRoPhEt MAS creates a valid ALICA plan, which will be executed by the team. The paper describes the basic components for communication, coordinated exploration, perception and object transportation. Finally, we evaluate the planning engine pRoPhEt MAS in the IMPERA scenario. In addition, we present further evaluation of pRoPhEt MAS in more dynamic environments. Full article
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1214 KiB  
Article
Multi-Robot Item Delivery and Foraging: Two Sides of a Coin
by Somchaya Liemhetcharat, Rui Yan, Keng Peng Tee and Matthew Lee
Robotics 2015, 4(3), 365-397; https://doi.org/10.3390/robotics4030365 - 23 Sep 2015
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 7587
Abstract
Multi-robot foraging has been widely studied in the literature, and the general assumption is that the robots are simple, i.e., with limited processing and carrying capacity. We previously studied continuous foraging with slightly more capable robots, and in this article, we are interested [...] Read more.
Multi-robot foraging has been widely studied in the literature, and the general assumption is that the robots are simple, i.e., with limited processing and carrying capacity. We previously studied continuous foraging with slightly more capable robots, and in this article, we are interested in using similar robots for item delivery. Interestingly, item delivery and foraging are two sides of the same coin: foraging an item from a location is similar to satisfying a demand. We formally define the multi-robot item delivery problem and show that the continuous foraging problem is a special case of it. We contribute distributed multi-robot algorithms that solve the item delivery and foraging problems and describe how our shared world model is synchronized across the multi-robot team. We performed extensive experiments on simulated robots using a Java simulator, and we present our results to demonstrate that we outperform benchmark algorithms from multi-robot foraging. Full article
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