Beyond Sync: Distributed Temporal Coordination and Its Implementation in a Multi-Robot System

Abstract

We propose a technique for adaptive temporal coordination in multi-agent systems where tasks have to be scheduled in a decentralized way. It provides three states: synchronized, splay, and clustered. Due to discretization in time and phase, the model operates with low signaling effort and is robust in the presence of delays. We analyze the model through simulations and demonstrate its feasibility through experiments with small robots.