A market framework for collaborative robot exploration

This research considers the problem of using miniature low-cost robots for real-world tasks. The issues of low quality sensor data, inaccurate odometry, low processing capacity and limited power are approached through the adoption of a flexible, distributed control system. The system is employed in the context of collaborative multi-robot exploration. A scalable behavior-based control system is presented that is lightweight enough to be deployed on embedded processors while still enabling robots to react effectively to changes in the environment and to other robots. A market framework is used to support efficient task selection for robots as well as the formation of coalitions to achieve close coordination between robots where profitable. Experiments with physical robots demonstrate the viable solutions developed to the many technical issues that low-cost robots raise while further experiments in simulation extrapolate these findings to greater number of robots in more challenging environments