Negotiation protocol for proof of realization of cooperative task in multi-agent robot systems

Abstract

The authors propose a negotiation protocol for verifying the feasibility of a cooperative task. In our multiagent system, each agent has a knowledge base to make plans and prove the feasibility of the requested task. When a task request is received by an agent, the agent asks its own knowledge base whether the task is executable or not. If the agent recognizes that it needs another agent's cooperation to execute the task, the agent requests other agents to verify whether the cooperation is acceptable. Using this protocol in a multiagent system that consists of heterogeneous agents, these agents verify the feasibility of a chain of cooperative tasks. In this framework, we design a multiagent system that consists of mobile robots, manipulators, camera robots and several sensors. We also perform complex tasks such as printing and delivering documents, and demonstrate the applicability of our proposal.