An Industrial Perspective on Multi-Agent Decision Making for Interoperable Robot Navigation following the VDA5050 Standard

TL;DR

This paper discusses the challenges and recent developments in multi-agent decision making for industrial robot navigation, emphasizing standards like VDA5050 and middleware frameworks such as ROS2 to improve interoperability and performance.

Contribution

It provides an overview of current multi-agent systems in industry, analyzes the impact of new standards, and identifies research opportunities for robust multi-robot navigation.

Findings

VDA5050 standard enhances interoperability in robot fleets.

OpenRMF framework supports integration of heterogeneous systems.

ROS2 middleware reaches industrial-grade reliability.

Abstract

This paper provides a perspective on the literature and current challenges in Multi-Agent Systems for interoperable robot navigation in industry. The focus is on the multi-agent decision stack for Autonomous Mobile Robots operating in mixed environments with humans, manually driven vehicles, and legacy Automated Guided Vehicles. We provide typical characteristics of such Multi-Agent Systems observed today and how these are expected to change on the short term due to the new standard VDA5050 and the interoperability framework OpenRMF. We present recent changes in fleet management standards and the role of open middleware frameworks like ROS2 reaching industrial-grade quality. Approaches to increase the robustness and performance of multi-robot navigation systems for transportation are discussed, and research opportunities are derived.