Distributed planning for assembly tasks by multiple manipulators

Generally, algorithms for assembly task planning are apt to become complicated. Moreover, it is very difficult to create plans for multiple manipulators. The authors propose a new assembly task planning system for multiple manipulators in order to avoid this problem and improve the flexibility and the reliability of the whole system. In this system, each of the parts composing a machine is regarded as an agent, and a plan for an assembly task is automatically generated as the results of autonomous behaviors of these agents. The outline of the planning system based on this concept is described, some simulation results using a cooperative computational model are given