Abstract
In this paper, we present a novel method for performing collective transport in the presence of obstacles. Three robots are physically connected to an object to be transported from a start to a goal location. The task is particularly challenging because the robots have a heterogeneous perception of the environment. In fact, the goal and the obstacles can be perceived only by some of the robots. Hence, the task requires appropriate negotiation of the direction among the robots. We developed a novel negotiation strategy in order to tackle this challenge.We perform experiments in simulation. In the experiments,we analyze efficiency in an environment with only one obstacle, and robustness in an environment with several obstacles.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Bahçeci, E., Soysal, O., Şahin, E.: A review: pattern formation and adaptation in multi-robot systems. Technical Report CMU-RI-TR-03-43, Robotics Institute, Pittsburgh, PA (2003)
Varghese, B., McKee, G.: A review and implementation of swarm pattern formation and transformation models. International Journal of Intelligent Computing and Cybernetics 2(4), 786–817 (2009)
Balch, T., Hybinette, M.: Social potentials for scalable multi-robot formations. In: Carlisle, B.R., Khatib, O. (eds.) Proceedings of the 2000 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2000), pp. 73–80. IEEE Press, Piscataway (2000)
Spears, W.M., Spears, D.F., Hamann, J.C., Heil, R.: Distributed, physics-based control of swarms of vehicles. Autonomous Robots 17(2-3), 137–162 (2004)
Stilwell, D., Bay, J.: Toward the development of a material transport system using swarms of ant-like robots. In: Proceedings IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp. 766–771. IEEE Comput. Soc. Press, Piscataway (1993)
Kosuge, K., Oosumi, T., Satou, M., Chiba, K., Takeo, K.: Transportation of a single object by two decentralized-controlled nonholonomic mobile robots. In: Giralt, G., Dario, P. (eds.) IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, vol. 4, pp. 2989–2994. IEEE Press, Piscataway (1998)
Wang, Z., Takano, Y., Hirata, Y., Kosuge, K.: A pushing leader based decentralized control method for cooperative object transportation. In: Asama, H. (ed.) IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, vol. 1, pp. 1035–1040. IEEE Press, Piscataway (2004)
Balch, T., Ronald, Arkin, R.C.: Communication in reactive multiagent robotic systems. Autonomous Robots 1, 27–52 (1994)
Donald, B.R., Jennings, J., Rus, D.: Information invariants for distributed manipulation. The International Journal of Robotics Research 16(5), 673 (1997)
Yamada, S., Saito, J.: Adaptive action selection without explicit communication for multi-robot box-pushing. In: Harashima, F., Fukuda, T. (eds.) IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, vol. 3, pp. 1444–1449. IEEE Press, Piscataway (1999)
Campo, A., Nouyan, S., Birattari, M., Groß, R., Dorigo, M.: Negotiation of Goal Direction for Cooperative Transport. In: Dorigo, M., Gambardella, L.M., Birattari, M., Martinoli, A., Poli, R., Stützle, T. (eds.) ANTS 2006. LNCS, vol. 4150, pp. 191–202. Springer, Heidelberg (2006)
Groß, R., Dorigo, M.: Towards group transport by swarms of robots. International Journal of Bio-Inspired Computation 1(1-2), 1–13 (2009)
Trianni, V., Dorigo, M.: Self-organisation and communication in groups of simulated and physical robots. Biological Cybernetics 95, 213–231 (2006)
Baldassarre, G., Parisi, D., Nolfi, S.: Distributed coordination of simulated robots based on self-organization. Artificial Life 12(3), 289–743 (2006)
Bonani, M., Longchamp, V., Magnenat, S., Rétornaz, P., Burnier, D., Roulet, G., Vaussard, F., Bleuler, H., Mondada, F.: The MarXbot, a miniature mobile robot opening new perspectives for the collective-robotic research. In: Huo, R., Asama, H. (eds.) 2010 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2010). IEEE Press, Piscataway (2010)
Bonani, M., Magnenat, S., Rétornaz, P., Mondada, F.: The Hand-Bot, a Robot Design for Simultaneous Climbing and Manipulation. In: Xie, M., Xiong, Y., Xiong, C., Liu, H., Hu, Z. (eds.) ICIRA 2009. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 5928, pp. 11–22. Springer, Heidelberg (2009)
Magnenat, S., Longchamp, V., Bonani, M., Rétornaz, P., Germano, P., Bleuler, H., Mondada, F.: Affordable slam through the co-design of hardware and methodology. In: Snyder, W., Kumar, V. (eds.) IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. IEEE Press, Piscataway (2010)
Roberts, J., Stirling, T., Zufferey, J., Floreano, D.: 2.5d infrared range and bearing system for collective robotics. In: Hamel, W.R. (ed.) IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. IEEE Press, Piscataway (2009)
Ferrante, E., Brambilla, M., Birattari, M., Dorigo, M.: ”Look-out!”: Socially mediated obstacle avoidance in collective transport: Complete data (2010), Supplementary information page at http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/supp/IridiaSupp2010-005/
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ferrante, E., Brambilla, M., Birattari, M., Dorigo, M. (2013). Socially-Mediated Negotiation for Obstacle Avoidance in Collective Transport. In: Martinoli, A., et al. Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems. Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics, vol 83. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32723-0_41
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32723-0_41
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-32722-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-32723-0
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)