Exploiting Aggregate Programming in a Multi-Robot Service Prototype

TL;DR

This paper presents a multi-robot service prototype utilizing Aggregate Programming (AP) for coordination, validated through simulations and real-world tests in a university library setting.

Contribution

It demonstrates the application of AP in a multi-robot system, showcasing its practicality for resilient distributed robot coordination.

Findings

Successful validation with simulations and real-world tests

Effective coordination achieved using AP in a multi-robot system

Prototype demonstrates AP's suitability for service robotics

Abstract

Multi-robot systems are becoming increasingly relevant within diverse application domains, such as healthcare, exploration, and rescue missions. However, building such systems is still a significant challenge, since it adds the complexities of the physical nature of robots and their environments to those inherent in coordinating any distributed (multi-agent) system. Aggregate Programming (AP) has recently emerged as a promising approach to engineering resilient, distributed systems with proximity-based communication, and is notably supported by practical frameworks. In this paper we present a prototype of a multi-robot service system, which adopts AP for the design and implementation of its coordination software. The prototype has been validated both with simulations, and with tests in a University library.