A Cluster-Based Approach to Consensus Based Distributed Task Allocation

Abstract

This paper presents a novel extension to the Consensus-Based Bundle Algorithm (CBBA), which we have named Cluster-Formed Consensus-Based Bundle Algorithm (CFCBBA). CF-CBBA is designed to reduce the amount of communication required to complete a distributed task allocation process, by partitioning the problem and processing it in parallel clusters. CF-CBBA has been shown, in comparison with baseline CBBA, to require less communication when allocating tasks. Three key aspects of task allocation have been investigated, (a) the time taken to allocate tasks, (b) the amount of communication necessary to satisfy the requirements of distributed task allocation algorithms such as CBBA, and (c) the efficiency with which a collection of tasks (a mission) is completed by a group of robots (a collective).