Title :
Cost-balanced cooperation protocol in multi-agent robotic systems
Author :
Lin, Fang-Chang ; Hsu, Jane Yung-jen
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Comput. Sci. & Inf. Eng., Nat. Taiwan Univ., Taipei, Taiwan
Abstract :
This paper proposes a cooperation protocol based on the cost-balanced strategy for the Object-Sorting Task in multi-agent robotic systems. The protocol coordinates agents for carrying objects to destinations efficiently and effectively. Each agent autonomously makes subjective optimal decision, then the coordination algorithm resolves their conflicts by balancing the load, which is measured in terms of cost. Since coordination can be performed simultaneously with agent movement, it incurs very little overhead. The protocol is efficient because every agent runs the same algorithm to obtain the common results without further communication. Implementation of the protocol is realized on a distributed modular agent architecture for design simplicity, flexibility, and reactivity. Experimental results have shown that (1) the protocol has better performance than a previously proposed help-based cooperation protocol, (2) the protocol is flexible, and (3) the protocol can effectively utilize the agent power to achieve linear and superlinear speedup in most cases
Keywords :
artificial intelligence; computational complexity; cooperative systems; mobile robots; performance evaluation; protocols; Object-Sorting Task; cost-balanced cooperation protocol; cost-balanced strategy; distributed modular agent architecture; help-based cooperation protocol; multi-agent robotic systems; subjective optimal decision; Cleaning; Computer architecture; Computer science; Cost function; Mobile communication; Painting; Parallel robots; Power system reliability; Protocols; Robot kinematics;
Conference_Titel :
Parallel and Distributed Systems, 1996. Proceedings., 1996 International Conference on
Conference_Location :
Tokyo
Print_ISBN :
0-8186-7267-6
DOI :
10.1109/ICPADS.1996.517547