Title :
Load balancing for multi-robot construction
Author :
Napp, Nils ; Klavins, Eric
Author_Institution :
Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
Abstract :
In distributed multi-robot construction it is important to set the relative rates at which different construction sites receive raw building materials. Otherwise, subtasks finish at different times introducing unnecessary delays. We present a feedback algorithm to achieve robust load balancing in routing building materials for stochastic, distributed, multi-robot construction systems. We express global behavior in terms of local reactive behavior via Guarded Command Programming with Rates and prove correctness of the load-balancing controller for a wide range of conditions. We adapt a proof from earlier work on controlling Stochastic Chemical Kinetic systems and illustrate the algorithm on the Factory-Floor robotic testbed [1].
Keywords :
construction; multi-robot systems; stochastic systems; distributed construction systems; distributed multirobot construction; factory-floor robotic testbed; feedback algorithm; guarded command programming; load balancing; multirobot construction systems; raw building materials; routing building materials; stochastic chemical kinetic systems; stochastic construction systems; Floors; Markov processes; Production facilities; Raw materials; Robots; Robustness; Routing;
Conference_Titel :
Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2011 IEEE International Conference on
Conference_Location :
Shanghai
Print_ISBN :
978-1-61284-386-5
DOI :
10.1109/ICRA.2011.5979634