Dynamic Assignment in Distributed Motion Planning With Local Coordination

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General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception Laboratory
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distributed control
hybrid systems
motion planning
multiagent assignment problems
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Zavlanos, Michael
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Distributed motion planning of multiple agents raises fundamental and novel problems in control theory and robotics. In particular, in applications such as coverage by mobile sensor networks or multiple target tracking, a great new challenge is the development of motion planning algorithms that dynamically assign targets or destinations to multiple homogeneous agents, not relying on any a priori assignment of agents to destinations. In this paper, we address this challenge using two novel ideas. First, distributed multi-destination potential fields are developed that are able to drive every agent to any available destination. Second, nearest neighbor coordination protocols are developed ensuring that distinct agents are assigned to distinct destinations. Integration of the overall system results in a distributed, multiagent, hybrid system for which we show that the mutual exclusion property of the final assignment is guaranteed for almost all initial conditions. Furthermore, we show that our dynamic assignment algorithm will converge after exploring at most a polynomial number of assignments, dramatically reducing the combinatorial nature of purely discrete assignment problems. Our scalable approach is illustrated with nontrivial computer simulations.

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2008-02-01
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Copyright 2008 IEEE. Reprinted from IEEE Transactions on Robotics, Volume 24, Issue 1, February 2008, pages 232-242. This material is posted here with permission of the IEEE. Such permission of the IEEE does not in any way imply IEEE endorsement of any of the University of Pennsylvania's products or services. Internal or personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution must be obtained from the IEEE by writing to pubs-permissions@ieee.org. By choosing to view this document, you agree to all provisions of the copyright laws protecting it.
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