Modeling and Simulation of a Multi-Robot System Architecture

Abstract

A Multi-Robot System (MRS) is the infrastructure of an intelligent cyber-physical system, where the robots understand the need of the human, and hence cooperate together to fulfill this need. Modeling the MRS is a crucial aspect of designing the proper system architecture, because this model can be used to simulate and measure the performance of the proposed architecture. However, an MRS architecture modeling is a very difficult problem, as it contains many dependent behaviors that dynamically change due to the current state of the system. In this paper, we introduce a general-purpose MRS case study, where the humans initiate requests that are achieved by the available robots. These requests require different plans that use the current capabilities of the available robots. After proposing an architecture that defines the solution components, three steps are followed. Firstly, modeling these components via a proper Architecture Description Language (ADL). Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) is used as an ADL to represent the behaviors of every component, which is an essential need to model the solution. Secondly, simulating these components behaviors and interaction in form of software agents. Java Agent Development (JADE) middleware is used to develop the proposed model. JADE is based on a reactive agent approach, therefore it can simulate the dynamically interaction among the solution components. Finally, analyze the performance of the solution by defining a number of quantitative measurements, which can be obtained while simulating the system model, therefore the solution can be analyzed and compared to another architecture.