Rapid multirobot deployment with time constraints

In this paper we consider the problem of multirobot deployment under temporal deadlines. The objective is to compute strategies trading off safety for speed to maximize the probability of reaching a given set of target locations within a pre-assigned temporal deadline. We formulate this problem using the theory of Constrained Markov Decision Processes and we show that thanks to this framework it is possible to determine deploying strategies maximizing the probability of success while satisfying the deadline. Moreover, the formulation allows to exactly compute the failure probability of complex deployment tasks. Simulation results illustrate how the proposed method works in different scenarios and show how informed decisions can be made regarding the size of the robot team.