Abstract
As Multi-Robot Systems (MRS) become more affordable and computing capabilities grow, they provide significant advantages for complex applications such as environmental monitoring, underwater inspections, or space exploration. However, accounting for potential communication loss or the unavailability of communication infrastructures in these application domains remains an open problem. Much of the applicable MRS research assumes that the system can sustain communication through proximity regulations and formation control or by devising a framework for separating and adhering to a predetermined plan for extended periods of disconnection. The latter technique enables an MRS to be more efficient, but breakdowns and environmental uncertainties can have a domino effect throughout the system, particularly when the mission goal is intricate or time-sensitive. To deal with this problem, our proposed framework has two main phases: i) a centralized planner to allocate mission tasks by rewarding intermittent rendezvous between robots to mitigate the effects of the unforeseen events during mission execution, and ii) a decentralized replanning scheme leveraging epistemic planning to formalize belief propagation and a Monte Carlo tree search for policy optimization given distributed rational belief updates. The proposed framework outperforms a baseline heuristic and is validated using simulations and experiments with aerial vehicles.
Abstract (translated)
随着多机器人系统（MRS）价格的降低和计算能力的提高，它们在环境监测、水下检查或太空探索等复杂应用中提供了显著的优势。然而，在这些应用领域中考虑潜在的通信损失或通信基础设施的不可用性仍然是一个开放的问题。MRS研究的很多部分都假定系统可以通过近距规则和组建控制以及设计一个框架来分离和遵循一个确定的计划来维持通信。后者使得MRS更加高效，但 breakdowns（故障）和 environmental uncertainties（环境不确定性）在整个系统内可能产生多米诺骨牌效应，特别是在任务目标复杂或时间敏感的情况下。为了解决这个问题，我们提出的框架有两个主要阶段：i）一个集中规划器，通过奖励机器人之间间歇性重聚来分配任务任务，减轻执行任务中不可预见事件的影响；ii）一个基于元规划的分布式规划方案，利用演绎规划来形式化信念传播和 Monte Carlo树搜索进行策略优化，给定分布式合理信念更新。所提出的框架在模拟和实验中验证了比基线启发式更优越的性能。
URL
https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.00641
