Cooperation of multiple robots in cellular robotic system based on information sharing

Summary form only given. A robotic system to cope with dynamic environments and multiple tasks is usually complex. Although the optimization of the whole robotic system operation based on centralized control can be relatively easily realized, the fatal weaknesses with centralized-based control in complexity, flexibility, robustness, reliability, expandability, etc., are often exposed. So, we have proposed a distributed-approach based cellular robotic system (CEBOT). Generally, the cooperation among multiple robots for task completion is mainly emphasized in CEBOT. Because the cooperation does not rely on centralized control mechanism but on autonomous actions of a robot unit, action decision and related efficiency of decisions of the robot unit for cooperation become the key of system operation. Problems of cooperation among multiple robots in CEBOT based on information sharing are described. Information sharing in three aspects (task descriptions, acquiring of robot states and acquiring of environment states) is discussed, and a hierarchical control architecture considering information sharing in three levels is proposed to enhance the efficiency of reasoning and planning for cooperative actions. Then, motion cooperation among multiple mobile robots in CEBOT is dealt with, based on information sharing about robot states and environment sensing. Finally, in order to confirm the effectiveness of motion cooperation among mobile robots based on information sharing, the experiments with a CEBOT prototype-CEBOT Mark-V are completed.