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Optimal Multi-robot Perimeter Defense Using Flow Networks

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Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems (DARS 2021)

Part of the book series: Springer Proceedings in Advanced Robotics ((SPAR,volume 22))

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Abstract

In perimeter defense, a team of defenders seeks to intercept a team of intruders before they reach the perimeter. Though the single defender case is relatively well studied, with multiple defenders significant complexity is introduced because coordination must also be considered. In this work, we present a formulation of the perimeter defense problem as an instance of the min-cost-max-flow problem for flow networks, and leverage existing efficient algorithms for network flows to solve both the task assignment and routing problems for perimeter defense concurrently. When considering homogeneous defender robots, the computed solution is optimal for any individual timestep. Additionally, we detail a deconflict-based strategy for dealing with heterogeneous defenders, and show in simulation that the proposed solutions match or outperform a naive greedy baseline.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. GRASP Lab at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA

    Austin K. Chen, George J. Pappas & Vijay Kumar

  2. Department of Computer Science, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil

    Douglas G. Macharet

  3. Mechanical Engineering Department, George Mason University, Fairfax, USA

    Daigo Shishika

Authors
  1. Austin K. Chen
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  2. Douglas G. Macharet
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  3. Daigo Shishika
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  4. George J. Pappas
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  5. Vijay Kumar
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Austin K. Chen .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Mechanical Engineering and Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

    Fumitoshi Matsuno

  2. Mechanical Systems Engineering, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan

    Shun-ichi Azuma

  3. Computer Science and Information Technology, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan

    Masahito Yamamoto

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Chen, A.K., Macharet, D.G., Shishika, D., Pappas, G.J., Kumar, V. (2022). Optimal Multi-robot Perimeter Defense Using Flow Networks. In: Matsuno, F., Azuma, Si., Yamamoto, M. (eds) Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems. DARS 2021. Springer Proceedings in Advanced Robotics, vol 22. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92790-5_22

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