Decision Methods for Distributed Multi-Robot Patrol

D. Portugal and R. P. Rocha

In Proc. of 10th IEEE Int. Symposium on Safety, Security, and Rescue Robotics (SSRR 2012), College Station, Texas, USA, pp. 1-6, Nov. 5-8, 2012.

Abstract

In the Multi-Robot Patrolling Problem, agents have to continuously decide which place to move next, after clearing their current location. This article proposes a distributed solution to the problem based on Bayesian decision. The system is modelled according to its current state, thus automating the local decision making process in order to effectively patrol an area. Two strategies are presented and compared. In the first one, robots are self-interested and aim to maximize their local gain. The second strategy is more complex, taking into account gains as well as the distribution of agents in the space to reduce interference and foster scalability. In order to validate the proposed solution, realistic simulations, comparing with five state-of-the-art approaches, as well as experiments with physical multi-robot systems were conducted.

Index Terms — Distributed systems, multi-robot patrolling, security.

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BibTeX

@INPROCEEDINGS(Portugal_et_al_12c,

AUTHOR = "Portugal, D. and Rocha, R. P.",

TITLE = "Decision Methods for Distributed Multi-Robot Patrol ",

BOOKTITLE = "In Proc. of 10th IEEE Int. Symposium on Safety, Security, and Rescue Robotics (SSRR 2012)",

ADDRESS = "College Station, Texas, USA",

YEAR = "2012",

MONTH = "Nov.",

PAGES = "1-6"

)

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Last update: 29/07/2013