Multiple robot systems’ communication using MAD-Smart methodology

Abstract

This paper was aimed at exhibiting the real need for having good communication within multiple robots systems using MAD-Smart methodology. Such methodology consists of conceptualising, analysing and designing multiple robot teams by defining a set of activities. MAD-Smart assists developers in further understanding not only the problem to be solved but the final characteristics which a particular system must accomplish and the role played by each agent in resolving problems. This methodology has already been validated by implementing the SMART (robotic multi agent system) project, educational robotics: intelligent machines in education and sensory and perception models in robotic agents for material identification. MAD-Smart has been shown to be more relevant in handling agent roles than the agents themselves for a given communication model. This issue reflects this methodology’s degree of abstraction since a role defining as an abstract representation of high level behavioural allows generalising the best possible scenarios which can be found in a given multi-robot system.