Autonomous and cooperative multirobot system for multi-object transportation

Abstract

This paper presents a multi-robot cooperation algorithm for object transportation, and is inspired by artificial immune system (AIS). The robotic team comprises multiple heterogeneous robots each with a unique set of capabilities. The developed multi-robot system (MRS) is autonomous and fully distributed. The task allocation algorithm allows for concurrent execution of multiple tasks in the system. Tasks in the developed MRS are heterogeneous objects that are randomly introduced to the system. The transportation of an object may only need a single robot or may require multiple cooperative robots. Essentially the developed MRS runs in an unknown, unstructured and dynamic environment. An experimental implementation and test results are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the developed MRS.