Taxonomy of cooperative robotic systems

The use of multiple robots to accomplish tasks has been common for many years. The term, cooperative, is used to designate the nature of the interactions among a team of robots. However, there are many differences in how these robots interact. Some groups of robots appear, on the surface, to cooperate but are not actually aware of the other robots. Other groups share goals and objectives. Our research investigated a diverse collection of multiple-robot systems. This paper highlights eight examples. The variations of interaction that we found were used to create a robotic-interaction taxonomy. Each robotic team is measured against three dimensions for placement into the taxonomy. Terminology for different types of cooperation is suggested.