Efficiently Sharing Information in Cooperative Multi-Robot Systems

Rui Rocha and Jorge Dias

Encyclopedia of E-Collaboration, Ned Kock (editor), IGI Global, Hershey, New York, ISBN 978-1-59904-000-4 (hardcover), ISBN 978-1-59904-000-1 (ebook), pages 561-568, 2008.

Abstract

Multi-robot systems (MRS) are sets of intelligent and autonomous mobile robots that are assumed to cooperate in order to carry out collective missions. Due to the expendability of individual robots, MRS may substitute humans in risky scenarios. In other scenarios, they may relieve people from collective tasks that are intrinsically monotonous and repetitive. MRS are the solution to automate missions that are either inherently distributed in time, space, or functionality.

MRS involve the distribution of sensors, computation power and mission-relevant information. This inherent distribution is both an opportunity and a challenge. On one hand, it endows MRS with interesting features, such as space and time distribution, managing complexity through distribution, distribution of risk and increased robustness. On the other hand, these potential advantages and their utility are to a greater extent dependent on the effective cooperation among robots when performing some collective mission.

Since information is intrinsically distributed, cooperation requires, in turn, efficiently sharing information through communication. A method for efficiently sharing information within a MRS is herein presented, which is based on an information utility criterion. This concept is illustrated on MRS whose mission is to build cooperatively volumetric maps.

Keywords ─ Multi-robot system, cooperation, awareness, volumetric map, distributed control, communication, information utility.

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BibTeX

@INCOLLECTION(Rocha_Dias_08,

AUTHOR = "Rocha, R. and Dias, J.",

TITLE = " Efficiently Sharing Information in Cooperative Multi-Robot Systems",

BOOKTITLE = "Encyclopedia of E-Collaboration",

PUBLISHER = "Information Science Reference (formerly Idea Group Reference), Hershey, New York",

YEAR = "2008",

EDITOR = "Kock, Ned",

PAGES = "561-568"

)

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Last update: 10/12/2007