DIMMACSS-Stage: a Distributed Intelligence Model for a Multi-Agent Control System using Simulink and the Stage robotic simulator

Abstract

DIMMACSS-Stage is a software framework used to control a multi-agent system within the Player/Stage robotic simulator using a controller designed in MATLAB’s Simulink. There is a lot of novel research being done that involves the control of a multi-agent system, and a lot of this research uses robotic simulators, such as Player/Stage, to test and prove the validity of the controller. However, the current trend throughout the published research, even in the top journals and conferences, is that the software framework is constantly being designed from scratch over and over again, and there is little to no discussion regarding how it was actually designed. There are many problems associated with this situation; for example, the solutions are most likely not optimal in their time and space complexities, and there is no way to duplicate or replicate the experimental results of the published work. To this end, this paper provides a method, model, and design regarding how to specifically design a correct and optimal software framework to control a multi-agent system in the Stage robotic simulator using a controller designed in MATLAB’s Simulink. This paper also discusses why optimal solutions are important, and it provides all the information and details necessary to replicate and duplicate the DIMMACSS-Stage framework.