CMU talk: Multi-robot Coordination for Domains with Intra-path Constraints

CMU FRC Seminar

Multi-robot Coordination for Domains with Intra-path Constraints

E. Gil Jones
PhD Candidate
CMU Robotics Institute

Thursday, April 16nd, 2009

Abstract
Many applications require teams of robots to cooperatively execute complex tasks. Among these domains are those where successful coordination solutions must respect constraints that occur on the intra-path level. This work focuses on multi-agent coordination for disaster response with intra-path constraints, a compelling application that is not well addressed by current coordination methods. In this domain a group of fire trucks agents attempt to address a number of fires that are occurring throughout a city in the wake of a large-scale disaster. The disaster has not only caused fires but has also caused many city roads to be blocked by debris, making them impassable; bulldozer robots also operating in the domain can clear the debris. The coordination solution must determine not only a task allocation but also what routes the fire trucks should take given the intra-path precedence constraints and which bulldozers should be assigned to satisfy those constraints. This talk will focus on two main techniques for determining multi-robot coordination solutions for domains with intra-path constraints. The first technique uses tiered auctions, a novel market-based method. The second technique uses centralized genetic algorithms. The approaches are compared in terms of solution quality and computation time in a simulated disaster response domain.

Bio
Gil is a fifth year Ph.D. student at the Robotics Institute, and is co-advised by Bernardine Dias and Tony Stentz. He received his BA in Computer Science from Swarthmore College in 2001, and spent two years as a software engineer at Bluefin Robotics - manufacturer of autonomous underwater vehicles - in Cambridge, Mass.