论文标题
基于最佳运输理论的能量限制的有效多机器人探索
Efficient Multi-Robot Exploration with Energy Constraint based on Optimal Transport Theory
论文作者
论文摘要
本文考虑了多机器人系统的能量限制,解决了最佳运输(OT)有效的多机器人勘探问题。这个问题的效率意味着一个机器人团队(代理)如何覆盖给定的域,反映了由密度分布所代表的利益领域的优先级,而不是简单地遵循统一模式的预设。为了实现有效的多机器人探索,量化两个密度分布之间距离的最佳传输理论被用作工具,这也是一种绩效指标的手段。然后将多机器人系统的能量约束纳入基于OT的多机器人勘探方案中。 提出的方案与机器人动力学分离,扩大了多机器人勘探计划对异质机器人平台的适用性。不仅提供了集中式的,而且还提供了分散的算法来应对更现实的场景,例如代理之间的通信范围限制。为了衡量勘探效率,基于最佳运输理论为集中式和分散案例开发了绩效的上限,该案例在计算方面是可计算且有效的。所提出的多机器人勘探方案也适用于随时间变化的分布,其中需要给定参考分布的时空演化。为了验证提出的方法,提供了多个仿真结果。
This paper addresses an Optimal Transport (OT)-based efficient multi-robot exploration problem, considering the energy constraints of a multi-robot system. The efficiency in this problem implies how a team of robots (agents) covers a given domain, reflecting a priority of areas of interest represented by a density distribution, rather than simply following a preset of uniform patterns. To achieve an efficient multi-robot exploration, the optimal transport theory that quantifies a distance between two density distributions is employed as a tool, which also serves as a means of performance measure. The energy constraints for the multi-robot system is then incorporated into the OT-based multi-robot exploration scheme. The proposed scheme is decoupled from robot dynamics, broadening the applicability of the multi-robot exploration plan to heterogeneous robot platforms. Not only the centralized but also decentralized algorithms are provided to cope with more realistic scenarios such as communication range limits between agents. To measure the exploration efficiency, the upper bound of the performance is developed for both the centralized and decentralized cases based on the optimal transport theory, which is computationally tractable as well as efficient. The proposed multi-robot exploration scheme is also applicable to a time-varying distribution, where the spatio-temporal evolution of the given reference distribution is desired. To validate the proposed method, multiple simulation results are provided.