Decentralized waypoint-based multi-robot coordination

Abstract

This paper describes a decentralized approach based on Alternative Waypoint Generating (AWG) for planning separate kinematic paths to multiple robots to alleviate the waiting situation problems. The basic thought of this approach is straight-forward: If a robot request a target waypoint that has already been assigned to another robot, then this robot will consider this waypoint as an obstacle and attempt to get an alternative one around it. The proposed strategy has been implemented and evaluated in simulation. The experimental results demonstrated that the waiting situation problems have been decreased and the overall system performance has been improved.