This paper provides a method of adaptive coordination for multi-agent systems to solve object-sorting tasks (OST). It coordinates agents to move objects to destinations efficiently and effectively. Adaptive coordination is achieved by looking up a relationship table from which a relative best coordination algorithm can be found to perform the object-sorting tasks. An adaptive resonance theory network is utilized to cluster the object distribution so as to help construct the relationship table. By using adaptive rules for performing OST, experimental results showed that agents work more efficiently than single coordination solutions. An analysis of object distributions of OST provides a concrete result to make agents perform OST with the best performance.

This paper proposes a methodology for developing multi-agent systems. Several design considerations for robotic agents are discussed. A script specifies a multi-agent system by defining the behavior of each agent. An agent is modeled by an extended finite state automaton. By using the state transition rules as the building blocks, an agent as well as a multi-agent system can be developed efficiently. This methodology is further applied to multi-agent robotic systems in which reactivity and interaction are important issues. A script-based architecture is developed to implement the agents in multi-agent robotic systems. This architecture considers not only the control architecture of a single agent, but also the interactions among multiple agents and their environments. A script for the object-sorting task problem is utilized for demonstration.

This paper proposes a cooperation protocol based on the cost-balanced strategy for the Object-Sorting Task in multi-agent robotic systems. The protocol coordinates agents for carrying objects to destinations efficiently and effectively. Each agent autonomously makes subjective optimal decision, then the coordination algorithm resolves their conflicts by balancing the load, which is measured in terms of cost. Since coordination can be performed simultaneously with agent movement, it incurs very little overhead. The protocol is efficient because every agent runs the same algorithm to obtain the common results without further communication. Implementation of the protocol is realized on a distributed modular agent architecture for design simplicity, flexibility, and reactivity. Experimental results have shown that (1) the protocol has better performance than a previously proposed help-based cooperation protocol, (2) the protocol is flexible, and (3) the protocol can effectively utilize the agent power to achieve linear and superlinear speedup in most cases.

This paper proposes a coordination-based cooperation protocol for the object-sorting task in multi-agent robotic systems. The protocol coordinates the agents to move objects to destinations efficiently and effectively. Every agent autonomously makes subjective optimal decision, then the coordination algorithm resolves their conflicts by considering the global results. Since every agent runs the same algorithm to obtain the common results without further communication, the protocol is efficient. Implementation of the protocol is realized on a distributed modularized agent architecture. Experimental results shows that the protocol is effective and better than a previous proposed help-based protocol. In addition, its performance is very close to a high complexity model, genetic algorithms. The protocol can be applied to coordinate multiple autonomous robots for dispatching and transporting components in manufacturing systems.

This paper presents a deadlock-free cooperation protocol for an object-sorting task in a multi-agent system. The object-sorting task in a distributed robotic system is introduced and a cooperation protocol for the task along with the agent architecture is proposed. The agents are based on a homogeneous agent architecture that consists of search, motion, and communication modules coordinated through a global state. The deadlock problem for the object-sorting task is addressed and several deadlock-handling strategies are provided to guarantee the cooperation protocol is deadlock-free.

The paper proposes a decentralized cooperation protocol for an object sorting task in a distributed robotic system. The multiple agents are based on a homogeneous agent architecture that consists of search, motion, and communication modules coordinated through a global state. Advantages of the system architecture are simplicity, intra agent distributed control no explicit inter agent control and flexibility. The protocol encourages the agents to help each other in order to facilitate overall task achievement. Simulation results showed that: the protocol is stable and reliable under a spectrum of workload; the execution time increases linearly with the number of objects; increasing the number of agents can significantly decrease the waiting time and improve the performance.>