Combining self-organisation with decision-making and planning

Abstract

Coordination of mobile multi-robot systems in a self-organised manner is in the first place beneficial for simple robots in common swarm robotics scenarios. Moreover, sophisticated robot systems as for instance in disaster rescue teams, service robotics and robot soccer can also benefit from a decentralised coordination while performing complex tasks. In order to facilitate self-organised sophisticated multi-robot applications a suitable approach is to combine individual decision-making and planning with self-organization. We introduce a framework for the implementation and application of self-organization mechanisms in multi-robot scenarios. Furthermore, the integration into the hybrid behaviour planning framework ROS Hybrid Behaviour Planner is presented. This combined approach allows for a goal-directed application of self-organisation and provides a foundation for an automated selection of suitable mechanisms.