Decentralised control of robot teams with discrete and continuous decision variables

Abstract

The ability to coordinate can offer significant performance advantages. This paper proposes an algorithm for decentralised control that is a function of both discrete and continuous variables. The algorithm is applied to a multi-robot, multi-target mapping scenario, where decisions that couple the continuous motion controls and discrete robot-to-target assignments are made. The algorithm out-performed benchmarks including implicit coordination, best-response, and the decoupling of continuous and discrete decision variables.