Loosely Coupled Payload Transport System with Robot Replacement
Abstract
In this work, we present an algorithm for robot replacement to increase the operational time of a multi-robot payload transport system. Our system comprises a group of nonholonomic wheeled mobile robots traversing on a known trajectory. We design a multi-robot system with loosely coupled robots that ensures the system lasts much longer than the battery life of an individual robot. A system level optimization is presented, to decide on the operational state (charging or discharging) of each robot in the system. The charging state implies that the robot is not in a formation and is kept on charge whereas the discharging state implies that the robot is a part of the formation. Robot battery recharge hubs are present along the trajectory. Robots in the formation can be replaced at these hub locations with charged robots using a replacement mechanism. We showcase the efficacy of the proposed scheduling framework through simulations and experiments with real robots.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1904.03049,
title = {Loosely Coupled Payload Transport System with Robot Replacement},
author = {Pulkit Verma and Rahul Tallamraju and Abhay Rawat and Subhasis Chand and Kamalakar Karlapalem},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1904.03049},
year = {2019}
}
Comments
20 Pages, AAMAS 2019