Causal reasoning for planning and coordination of multiple housekeeping robots

Abstract

We consider a housekeeping domain with multiple cleaning robots and represent it in the action language . With such a formalization of the domain, a plan can be computed using the causal reasoner CCalc for each robot to tidy some part of the house. However, to find a plan that characterizes a feasible trajectory that does not collide with obstacles, we need to consider geometric reasoning as well. For that, we embed motion planning in the domain description using external predicates. For safe execution of feasible plans, we introduce a planning and monitoring algorithm so that the robots can recover from plan execution failures due to heavy objects that cannot be lifted alone. The coordination of robots to help each other is considered for such a recovery. We illustrate the applicability of this algorithm with a simulation of a housekeeping domain. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.