Related papers: Centralization vs. decentralization in multi-robot…
We present a novel reinforcement learning (RL) based task allocation and decentralized navigation algorithm for mobile robots in warehouse environments. Our approach is designed for scenarios in which multiple robots are used to perform…
Collective intelligence and autonomy of robot swarms can be improved by enabling the individual robots to become aware they are the constituent units of a larger whole and what is their role. In this study, we present an algorithm to enable…
When individual robots have limited sensing capabilities or insufficient fault tolerance, it becomes necessary for multiple robots to form teams during exploration, thereby increasing the collective observation range and reliability.…
Decentralized network theories focus on achieving consensus and in speeding up the rate of convergence to consensus. However, network cohesion (i.e., maintaining consensus) during transitions between consensus values is also important when…
Centralized approaches for multi-robot coverage planning problems suffer from the lack of scalability. Learning-based distributed algorithms provide a scalable avenue in addition to bringing data-oriented feature generation capabilities to…
Decentralized optimization enables multiple devices to learn a global machine learning model while each individual device only has access to its local dataset. By avoiding the need for training data to leave individual users' devices, it…
Multi-unit organizations are a form of organizations where the geographically dispersed units provide similar products or services in different markets. Deciding on an appropriate level of centralization in such organizations presents a…
Purpose of review: This paper reviews opportunities and challenges for decentralised control, change-detection, and learning in the context of resilient robot teams. Recent findings: Exogenous fault detection methods can provide a generic…
We present a closed-loop multi-arm motion planner that is scalable and flexible with team size. Traditional multi-arm robot systems have relied on centralized motion planners, whose runtimes often scale exponentially with team size, and…
Swarms of autonomous agents are useful in many applications due to their ability to accomplish tasks in a decentralized manner, making them more robust to failures. Due to the difficulty in running experiments with large numbers of hardware…
Circumnavigation control is useful in real-world applications such as entrapping a hostile target. In this paper, we consider a heterogeneous multi-robot system where robots have different physical properties, such as maximum movement…
Decentralized control of cooperative systems captures the operation of a group of decision makers that share a single global objective. The difficulty in solving optimally such problems arises when the agents lack full observability of the…
In this paper, we extended previous studies of cooperating autonomous robots to include situations when environmental changes and changes in the number of robots in the swarm can affect the efficiency to execute tasks assigned to the swarm…
Swarm robotics explores the coordination of multiple robots to achieve collective goals, with collective decision-making being a central focus. This process involves decentralized robots autonomously making local decisions and communicating…
In this paper, we consider the problem of protecting a high-value area from being breached by sheep agents by crafting motions for dog robots. We use control barrier functions to pose constraints on the dogs' velocities that induce…
When a large number of robots try to reach a common area, congestions happen, causing severe delays. To minimise congestion in a robotic swarm system, traffic control algorithms must be employed in a decentralised manner. Based on…
In recent years, reinforcement learning and its multi-agent analogue have achieved great success in solving various complex control problems. However, multi-agent reinforcement learning remains challenging both in its theoretical analysis…
This paper presents a novel multi-robot coverage path planning (CPP) algorithm - aka SCoPP - that provides a time-efficient solution, with workload balanced plans for each robot in a multi-robot system, based on their initial states. This…
Distributed model predictive control (DMPC) is a flexible and scalable feedback control method applicable to a wide range of systems. While the stability analysis of DMPC is quite well understood, there exist only limited implementation…
Distributed control algorithms are known to reduce overall computation time compared to centralized control algorithms. However, they can result in inconsistent solutions leading to the violation of safety-critical constraints. Inconsistent…