IMPERA: Integrated Mission Planning for Multi-Robot Systems

Daniel Saur,Kurt Geihs

doi:10.3390/robotics4040435

Abstract

This paper presents the results of the project IMPERA (Integrated Mission Planning for Distributed Robot Systems). The goal of IMPERA was to realize an extraterrestrial exploration scenario using a heterogeneous multi-robot system. The main challenge was the development of a multi-robot planning and plan execution architecture. The robot team consists of three heterogeneous robots, which have to explore an unknown environment and collect lunar drill samples. The team activities are described using the language ALICA (A Language for Interactive Agents). Furthermore, we use the mission planning system pRoPhEt MAS (Reactive Planning Engine for Multi-Agent Systems) to provide an intuitive interface to generate team activities. Therefore, we define the basic skills of our team with ALICA and define the desired goal states by using a logic description. Based on the skills, pRoPhEt MAS creates a valid ALICA plan, which will be executed by the team. The paper describes the basic components for communication, coordinated exploration, perception and object transportation. Finally, we evaluate the planning engine pRoPhEt MAS in the IMPERA scenario. In addition, we present further evaluation of pRoPhEt MAS in more dynamic environments.

Highlights

Autonomous multi-robot systems are good candidates for extraterrestrial mission scenarios
We present the final results of the research project Integrated Mission Planning for Distributed Robot Systems (IMPERA)
We evaluate our design for three different scenarios: 1. The planning problem in project IMPERA, which is quite simple, but offers an appropriate proof of concept

Summary

Introduction

Autonomous multi-robot systems are good candidates for extraterrestrial mission scenarios. NASA has several missions in extraterrestrial areas. The missions Mars Exploration Rover [1] and. Mars Science Lab NASA [2] deal mainly with the exploration of the planet’s surface and the analysis of what the surface consists of. The robots are able to take surface samples by using a drill and take them back to a base station for later analysis. The autonomy of robots in planetary missions will become an almost mandatory requirement. A team of heterogeneous robots can speed up the missions enormously if different robots are optimized for certain tasks. A distributed team organization is recommended to avoid a single point of failure, which might result in a failed mission

Methods

Results

Conclusion