Multiple Mobile Robot Systems

Abstract

Within the context of multiple mobile robot sys- tems, this chapter explores the current state of the art. After a brief introduction, we first ex- amine architectures for multirobot cooperation, exploring the alternative approaches that have been developed. Next, we explore communi- cations issues and their impact on multirobot teams in Sect. 40.3, followed by a discussion of swarm robot systems in Sect. 40.4. While swarm systems typically assume large numbers of homogeneous robots, other types of mul- tirobot systems include heterogeneous robots. We therefore next discuss heterogeneity in co- operative robot teams in Sect. 40.5. Once robot teams allow for individual heterogeneity, issues of task allocation become important; Sect. 40.6 therefore discusses common approaches to task allocation. Section 40.7 discusses the challenges of multirobot learning, and some representa- tive approaches. We outline some of the typical application domains which serve as test beds for multirobot systems research in Sect. 40.8. Finally, we conclude in Sect. 40.9 with some summary remarks and suggestions for further reading.