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Sensor Based Intelligent Robots pp 195–215Cite as

Multiple-Robot Motion Planning = Parallel Processing + Geometry

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 2238))

Abstract

We present two problems in multiple-robot motion planning that can be quite naturally solved using techniques from the parallel processing community to dictate how the robots interact with each other and techniques from computational geometry to apply these techniques in the geometric environment in which the robots operate. The first problem we consider is a load-balancing problem in which a pool of work must be divided among a set of processors in order to minimize the amount of time required to complete all the work. We describe a simple polygon partitioning algorithm that allows techniques from parallel processor scheduling to be applied in the multiple-robot setting in order to achieve a good balance of the work. The second problem is that of collision avoidance, where one must avoid that two (or more) processors occupy the same resource at the same time. For this problem, we describe a procedure for robot interaction that is derived from procedures used in shared-memory computers along with a geometric data structure that can efficiently determine when there are potential robot collisions.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max-Planck-Institut für Informatik, Saarbrücken, Germany

    Susan Hert

  2. Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, USA

    Brad Richards

Authors
  1. Susan Hert
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  2. Brad Richards
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore

    Gregory D. Hager

  2. Center for Autonomous Systems, CVAP, Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden

    Henrik Iskov Christensen

  3. Department of Computer Science, University of Bern, German

    Horst Bunke

  4. Institute for Computer Science I, University of Bonn, USA

    Rolf Klein

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© 2002 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Hert, S., Richards, B. (2002). Multiple-Robot Motion Planning = Parallel Processing + Geometry. In: Hager, G.D., Christensen, H.I., Bunke, H., Klein, R. (eds) Sensor Based Intelligent Robots. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2238. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45993-6_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45993-6_12

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-43399-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-45993-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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