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Self-organized task allocation to sequentially interdependent tasks in swarm robotics

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Abstract

In this article we present a self-organized method for allocating the individuals of a robot swarm to tasks that are sequentially interdependent. Tasks that are sequentially interdependent are common in natural and artificial systems. The proposed method does neither rely on global knowledge nor centralized components. Moreover, it does not require the robots to communicate. The method is based on the delay experienced by the robots working on one subtask when waiting for input from another subtask. We explore the capabilities of the method in different simulated environments. Additionally, we evaluate the method in a proof-of-concept experiment using real robots. We show that the method allows a swarm to reach a near-optimal allocation in the studied environments, can easily be transferred to a real robot setting, and is adaptive to changes in the properties of the tasks such as their duration. Finally, we show that the ideal setting of the parameters of the method does not depend on the properties of the environment.

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Notes

  1. Also referred to as intentional approaches to task allocation [24].

  2. In biology, the interface delay is commonly referred to as “queuing delay” (cf. [2, 3]]). We do not use the term “queue” as it implies an order in the arrival of robots at the task interface, which is not present in the stochastic system that we consider.

  3. Differences in average interface delays can be caused by differences in the properties of the problem such as subtask duration or swarm size.

  4. http://www.swarm-bots.org/

  5. http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/argos/

  6. http://www.swarmanoid.org/

  7. The short duration of the segments is due to two reasons. First, we used robots equipped with old and non-replaceable batteries. Second, robots depleted their batteries in an inhomogeneous way—robots that transported many objects depleted their battery at a much faster pace—and we had to stop the experiment as soon as the first robot ran out of energy.

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Acknowledgments

The research leading to the results presented in this paper has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)/ERC grant agreement no. 246939. Marco Dorigo, Mauro Birattari, and Arne Brutschy acknowledge support from the Belgian F.R.S.–FNRS. Giovanni Pini acknowledges support from Université Libre de Bruxelles through the “Fonds David & Alice Van Buuren”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. IRIDIA, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium

    Arne Brutschy, Giovanni Pini, Carlo Pinciroli, Mauro Birattari & Marco Dorigo

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  1. Arne Brutschy
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  2. Giovanni Pini
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  3. Carlo Pinciroli
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  4. Mauro Birattari
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  5. Marco Dorigo
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Correspondence to Arne Brutschy.

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Brutschy, A., Pini, G., Pinciroli, C. et al. Self-organized task allocation to sequentially interdependent tasks in swarm robotics. Auton Agent Multi-Agent Syst 28, 101–125 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10458-012-9212-y

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