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Partially-Decoupled Service Agent - Transport Agent Task Allocation and Scheduling

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Abstract

We present an approach to performing efficient schedule generation of a heterogeneous team of autonomous agents in a service agent - transport agent scenario where the task allocation and scheduling components are partially-decoupled. In the scenario, service agents must perform tasks at a number of locations. The agents are free to move between locations, however the agents may also be transported throughout the region by a limited number of faster-moving transport agents. The goal of the problem is to plan a schedule of service agent and transport agent actions such that all locations are serviced in the shortest amount of time. While in previous work we formulated the problem as a holistic mixed-integer linear program, we present a novel method to solve the problem in a hierarchical and partially-decoupled manner for faster optimization and to require less information to be processed and communicated in a centralized manner to perform the schedule planning. The original solution method required up to 20 minutes to obtain an efficient solution. The new methodology, using hierarchical task allocation and a bidding-based scheduling algorithm, can create an efficient solution in seconds.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Independent Applied Research program and ONR Code 32.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Naval Surface Warfare Center, Panama City Division, Panama City, FL, 32407, USA

    Matthew J. Bays

  2. Naval Undersea Warfare Center, Newport Division, Newport, RI, 02840, USA

    Thomas A. Wettergren

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  1. Matthew J. Bays
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  2. Thomas A. Wettergren
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Correspondence to Matthew J. Bays.

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Bays, M.J., Wettergren, T.A. Partially-Decoupled Service Agent - Transport Agent Task Allocation and Scheduling. J Intell Robot Syst 94, 423–437 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-018-0825-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-018-0825-5

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