Distributed multi-robot work load partition in manufacturing automation

This paper presents strategies for systematic ways to deploy multiple mobile robots for servicing large numbers of points of interest in a distributed fashion. The mobile robots in such systems are responsible for providing several essential services. For example, in manufacturing automation, the tasks could include parts inspection, parts changing and data collection, etc. The efficiency, responsiveness, and service life of the mobile robots depend on the balanced allocation of the entire work load to the individual robots. Starting from an initial random deployment of the robots, the proposed distributed load balancing algorithm computes the load share of each robot using virtual potential force method. The load imbalance is used as the virtual force to dynamically move the robots until a more balanced distribution is achieved. The total travelling cost to visit all the points of interest in a partition and the cost of servicing individual points are combined to compute the load in each partition. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms, we conducted simulations by applying them in inspection applications and obtained satisfactory results.