Sold!: Auction Methods for Multirobot Coordination (2002)
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@MISC{Gerkey02sold!:auction,
author = {Brian P. Gerkey and Maja J. Mataric},
title = {Sold!: Auction Methods for Multirobot Coordination},
year = {2002}
}
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Abstract
The key to utilizing the potential of multirobot systems is cooperation. How can we achieve cooperation in systems composed of failure-prone autonomous robots operating in noisy, dynamic environments? In this paper, we present a novel method of dynamic task allocation for groups of such robots. We implemented and tested an auction-based task allocation system which we call MURDOCH, built upon a principled, resource centric, publish /subscribe communication model. A variant of the Contract Net Protocol, MURDOCH produces a distributed approximation to a global optimum of resource usage. We validated MURDOCH in two very different domains: a tightly coupled multirobot physical manipulation task and a loosely coupled multirobot experiment in long-term autonomy. The primary contribution of this paper is to show empirically that distributed negotiation mechanisms such as MURDOCH are viable and effective for coordinating physical multirobot systems.
