Game theory-based negotiation for multiple robots task allocation

In order to minimize the processing time for multiple robots to finish lots of tasks, an optimized multiple robots task allocation and path planning approach is proposed. In this approach, the optimized task sequence is first schemed on the assumption that all the tasks are processed by one robot. While scheming the task sequence. A star algorithm is employed to plan paths and calculate the path cost. Then, according to the number of the robots, the task sequence has been randomly divided into several task segments that will be assigned to robots. At last, the task number of each task segments are averaged according to the time each robot used, so that the optimized task allocation scheme is got. In this approach, not only multiple robot task allocation, but also the optimized path planning is realized to ensure that the robots can finish all the tasks in the shortest time. The experiments and simulation are provided to validate the effectiveness of the approach. The results show that the proposed approach can scheme optimized multiple robots task allocation and path planning scheme.

A multiple UAV search and attack mission involves searching for targets in an unknown region, followed by attack on the detected targets. An effective mission involves assigning the tasks to UAVs efficiently. Task allocation becomes difficult when the UAVs have limited range to detect the targets and neighbouring UAVs. The UAVs are also subject to limited communication range. With these constraints, allocating tasks efficiently to UAVs become difficult. In this paper, we propose a negotiation scheme that efficiently allocates tasks for multiple UAVs. The performance of the negotiation based task allocation is studied on a battle field scenario. We study the effect of sensor ranges on the task allocation and compare the results with that of greedy strategy and a variation of the negotiation mechanism. The results show that the negotiation based task allocation mechanism performs far better than the greedy strategy. Negotiation with target information exchange between neighbours performs better than without target information exchange, when the sensor radius is low.

The use of fog and edge computing extends the computational capabilities of IoT systems to the network edge, contributing to the minimization of delays during task execution. Osmotic computing complements distributed computing by providing seamless integration between computational environments through dynamic migration of micro-elements across different hierarchy tiers according to current load conditions and resource availability. However, within the concept of osmotic computing, a key challenge remains the effective management of task allocation under conditions of uncertainty, dynamism, and heterogeneity of the IoT environment. The aim of this study is to improve the efficiency of resource utilization and task allocation in hierarchical IoT systems based on osmotic computing under uncertain and dynamically changing environmental conditions. The object of the study is the process of task allocation in multi-tier IoT systems that include cloud, fog, and edge computing. The subject of the study is methods and models for task allocation and computing resource management in IoT systems using the osmotic computing paradigm. The paper presents a three-tier hierarchical management model built on cloud, fog, and edge environments, which implements a centralized-decentralized management approach. Each tier is represented by a set of computing nodes and a management system that performs local task allocation, resource state monitoring, and micro-element management. The management system of the lower tier is subordinate to the higher-tier management system in the hierarchy. A method for decentralized task allocation in hierarchical IoT systems using fuzzy logic has been developed. The allocation method includes two decision-making stages using a fuzzy inference system: determining the direction of task allocation and selecting the optimal computing node for its execution. The determination of task allocation direction is carried out based on task characteristics, and the suitability rating of computing nodes is determined considering task execution latency, resource utilization efficiency, and load balancing. The task is assigned to the node with the maximum rating. The use of fuzzy logic ensures rational decision-making under conditions of uncertainty in real-time, which is characteristic of highly heterogeneous and dynamic IoT environments. Experimental modeling and investigation of the method were carried out using the iFogSim simulation environment. The research results show that the percentage of locally executed tasks remains virtually unchanged with different numbers of tasks, indicating stability in decision-making. Increasing the intensity of task generation leads to an increase in task computation latency due to increased load on computing nodes, while task assignment latency and response latency remain unchanged. The method demonstrated adaptability in task allocation for different types of tasks.

In order to obtain the optimal scheme of task allocation problem for multiple mobile robots. Considering task allocation problem is a multi-objective optimization problem in essence, a general multi-objective task allocation model is established. A new method named multi-objective optimization genetic algorithm based on decision preference information (DPIMOGA) is proposed to solve the optimal allocation scheme. Numerical simulations show that DPIMOGA can solve the problem with light decision burden and Real-time interaction, which denotes that the cooperative task allocation problem solved by DPIMOGA is feasible and effective for multiple mobile robots.

Task allocation in multi-agent system can be defined as a problem of allocating a number of agents to the task. One of the problems in task allocation is to optimize the allocation of heterogeneous agents when there are multiple tasks which require several capabilities. To solve that problem, this research aims to modify the Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) algorithm so that the algorithm can be employed for solving task allocation problems with multiple tasks. In this research, we optimize the performance of the algorithm by minimizing the task completion cost as well as the number of overlapping agents. We also maximize the overall system capabilities in order to increase efficiency. Simulation results show that the modified ACO algorithm has significantly decreased overall task completion cost as well as the overlapping agents factor compared to the benchmark algorithm.

Chip-multiprocessors represent a dominant new shift in the field of processor design. Better utilization of such technology in the real-time context requires coordinated approaches to task allocation, scheduling, and synchronization. In this paper, we characterize various scheduling penalties arising from multiprocessor task synchronization, including (i) blocking delays on global critical sections, (ii) back-to-back execution due to jitter from blocking, and (iii) multiple priority inversions due to remote resource sharing. We analyze the impact of these scheduling penalties under different execution control policies (ECPs) which compensate for the scheduling penalties incurred by tasks due to remote blocking. Subsequently, we develop a synchronization-aware task allocation algorithm for explicitly accommodating these global task synchronization penalties. The key idea of our algorithm is to bundle tasks that access a common shared resource and co-locate them, thereby transforming global resource sharing into local sharing. This approach reduces the above-mentioned penalties associated with remote task synchronization. Experimental results indicate that such a coordinated approach to scheduling, allocation, and synchronization yields significant benefits (as much as 50% savings in terms of required number of processing cores). An implementation of this approach is available as a part of our RT-MAP library, which uses the pthreads implementation of Linux-2.6.22.

Allocation problem has always been one of the fundamental issues of building the applications in real-time computing systems. For real-time applications, the allocation problem should directly address the issues of task and communication scheduling. In this context, the allocation of tasks has to fully utilize the available processors and the scheduling of tasks has to meet the specified timing constraints. Clearly, the execution of tasks under the allocation and schedule has to satisfy the precedence, resources, and other synchronization constraints among them. Recently, the timing requirements of the real-time systems emerge that the relative timing constraints are imposed on the consecutive executions of each task and the inter-task temporal relationships are specified across task periods. In this paper we consider the allocation and scheduling problem of the periodic tasks with such timing requirements. Given a set of periodic tasks, we consider the least common multiple (LCM) of the task periods. Each task is extended to several instances within the LCM. The scheduling window for each task instance is derived to satisfy the timing constraints. We develop a simulated annealing algorithm as the overall control algorithm. An example problem of the sanitized version of the Boeing 777 Aircraft Information Management System is solved by the algorithm. Experimental results show that the algorithm solves the problem in a reasonable time complexity.

On a dynamic and decentralized energy-aware technique for multi-robot task allocation

Task allocation problem plays a key role in software outsourcing services. In this paper, a self-adapting task allocation approach is presented to provide optimal task assignment strategy in the project management of software outsourcing services. The approach is constituted by preparation, task allocation, evaluation, and evolution part. In the core part, task allocation, several mathematical models for different objectives are built to determine the optimal task allocation solutions, and heuristics are proposed to solve them. The proposed approach was proved by numerical examples to be efficient, practical and helpful for improving enterprise project management level and sources code quality.

This paper presents a sampling-based approximation for multiple unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) task allocation under uncertainty. Our goal is to reduce the amount of calculations and improve the accuracy of the algorithm. For this purpose, Gaussian process regression models are constructed from an uncertainty parameter and task reward sample set, and this training set is iteratively refined by active learning and manifold learning. Firstly, a manifold learning method is used to screen samples, and a sparse graph is constructed to represent the distribution of all samples through a small number of samples. Then, multi-points sampling is introduced into the active learning method to obtain the training set from the sparse graph quickly and efficiently. This proposed hybrid sampling strategy could select a limited number of representative samples to construct the training set. Simulation analyses demonstrate that our sampling-based algorithm can effectively get a high-precision evaluation model of the impact of uncertain parameters on task reward.

SummaryBalanced task allocation is one of the methods that can be used to maximize the performance and reliability in the on‐demand computing‐based transaction processing system. On‐demand computing is an increasingly popular enterprise model. It provides computing resources to the user as needed, which may be maintained within the user's enterprise, or made available by a service provider. The balanced task allocation in such environment is known to be an NP hard. The reliability is a measure of trustworthiness of the system while executing the task. So we derive the reliability formula for the on‐demand computing‐based transaction processing system considering resource availability. We propose the balanced task allocation based on social spider optimization (LBTA_SSO) method for this problem. The LBTA_SSO is based on the cooperative behavior of social‐spiders to find a collection of task allocation solutions. We modified five existing algorithms to obtain the task allocation algorithms; Honey Bee Optimization (HBO), Ant Colony Optimization (ACO), Hierarchical Load Balanced Algorithm (HLBA), Dynamic and Decentralized Load Balancing (DLB), and Randomized Algorithm respectively. Then, we compared the proposed algorithm with these modified algorithms. The results show that our algorithm works better than the modified existing algorithms.

Mobile crowdsensing (MCS) is a new and promising paradigm of data collection in large-scale sensing and computing. A large group of users with mobile devices are recruited in a specific area to accomplish sensing tasks. An essential aspect of an MCS application is task allocation, which aims to efficiently assign sensing tasks to the recruited workers. Due to various resource and quality constraints, the MCS task allocation problem is often an NP-hard optimization problem. Traditional greedy or heuristic approaches are usually subject to performance loss in a certain degree so as to maintain tractability or accommodate special requirements such as incentive constraints. In this paper, we attempt to employ a deep reinforcement learning method to search for a more efficient task allocation solution. Specifically, we use a double deep Q-network (DDQN) to solve the task allocation problem as a path-planning problem with time windows. Our formulated problem takes into account location-dependency and time-sensitivity of sensing tasks, as well as the resource limits of workers in terms of maximum travelling distances. Simulations are conducted to compare the DDQN-based solution with two standard baseline solutions. The results show that our proposed solution outperforms the baseline solutions in terms of the platform’s profit and the coverage of tasks.

Abstract: Multi-robot systems require efficient and accurate planning in order to perform mission-critical tasks. However, algorithms that find the optimal solution are usually computationally expensive and may require a large number of messages between the robots as the robots need to be aware of the global spatiotemporal information. In this paper, we introduce an emergent task allocation approach for mobile robots. Each robot uses only the information obtained from its immediate neighbors in its decision. Our technique is general enough to be applicable to any task allocation scheme as long as a utilization criteria is given. We demonstrate that our approach performs similar to the integer linear programming technique which finds the global optimal solution at the fraction of its cost. The tasks we are interested in are detecting and controlling multiple regions of interest in an unknown environment in the presence of obstacles and intrinsic constraints. The objective function contains four basic requirements of a multi-robot system serving this purpose: control regions of interest, provide communication between robots, control maximum area and detect regions of interest. Our solution determines optimal locations of the robots to maximize the objective function for small problem instances while efficiently satisfying some constraints such as avoiding obstacles and staying within the speed capabilities of the robots, and finds an approximation to global optimal solution by correlating solutions of small

With the advent of Industry 4.0, the seamless integration of industrial systems and unmanned technologies has significantly accelerated the development of smart industries. However, the research on task allocation for railway maintenance robots remains limited, particularly with respect to optimizing costs and efficiency within smart railway systems. To address this gap, the present study explores multi-robot task allocation for automated orbital bolt maintenance, aiming to enhance operational efficiency by minimizing both makespan and total travel distance for all robots. To achieve this, an improved hybrid algorithm combining NSGA-II and MOPSO is proposed. Initially, a dynamic task planning method, tailored to the specific conditions of railway operations, is developed. This method uses the coordinates of track bolts to extract environmental features, enabling the dynamic partitioning of task areas. Subsequently, a multi-elite archive strategy is introduced, along with an adaptive mechanism for adjusting crossover and mutation probabilities. This ensures the preservation and maintenance of multiple solutions across various Pareto fronts, effectively mitigating the premature convergence commonly observed in traditional NSGA-II algorithms. Moreover, the integration of the MOPSO algorithm strikes a balance between local and global search capabilities, thereby enhancing both optimization efficiency and solution quality. Finally, a series of experiments, conducted with varying task sizes and robot quantities during the railway maintenance window, validate the effectiveness and improved performance of the proposed algorithm in addressing the multi-robot task allocation problem.

Task allocation is an essential strategy to achieve effective cooperation for swarm robots. Self-organized task allocation strategy is studied and efficient labor division and regulation is realized through local interactions among individual robots based on response threshold model. Local communication mechanism is proposed for the purpose of sharing local sensation information, and the simulation experiments verify that the efficiency of task allocation is improved significantly.