Task assignment methodology of multiple tasks with order constraints for multiple robot system

在以往的多机器人研究中，尽管任务分配方案具有重要的意义，但对于包含对任务执行顺序施加某种约束的“任务约束”问题，还没有任务分配方案的命题。在其他涉及任务约束的研究中，如作业车间调度，任务约束是由设计者给出的。我们解决了机器人应该自己计算任务约束并考虑它们的约束来执行任务分配的问题。作为这类问题的一个例子，我们采用了多个可移动物体的重排任务。在本研究中，需要解决以下几个问题。任务分配应考虑到任务的约束条件。任务约束应该尽早计算出来。在这些研究对象中，我们得到了以下结果。通过对任务约束的分类，得到了任务约束的计算方法和考虑这些约束的任务分配方法。提高了任务约束计算过程的效率。首先，我们从何时进行计算以及计算时间长短的角度分析了计算过程。接下来，我们列出了所有可能的程序。最后，我们在模拟环境中对这些程序进行了测试。结果表明，以下方法是最有效的：在每次任务分配中，机器人都要计算一些计算成本相对较低的约束条件。在未来的工作中，机器人需要更灵活的框架，将给定的任务划分为几个小任务，这样的框架需要更加灵活。例如，某些对象应临时设置为适当的中间目标。

In former researches in mufti-robotics, in spite of its importance, there have been no propositions of task allocation scheme toward the problem involving "task constraints" that impose some restriction on the orders of task execution. In other studies involving task constraints such as job shop scheduling, task constraints are given by the designer. We address the problem that robots should calculate task constraints by themselves and should execute task allocation considering their constraints. As an example of such problem, we adopted rearrangement task of multiple movable objects. In this research, following subjects should be solved.1. Task allocation should be executed considering task constraints.2. Task constraints should be calculated as early as possible.Toward these subjects, we have obtained following results.1. By means of classification of task constraints, we have obtained calculation methods of task constraints and task allocation methods considering these constraints.2. We have promoted efficiency of calculation procedure of task constraints. First, we have analyzed calculation procedure from viewpoints when calculation should be done and how long it should be taken. Next, we have listed all possible procedure. Finally, we have tested these procedures in simulated environments. As a result, following method turns out to be the most effective: In every time of task allocation, robots should calculate some constraints that costs comparatively low calculation costs. And robots should calculate other constraints that cost comparatively high calculation costs only when robots fail to planned tasks.In future works, more flexible framework that divides given task into several small tasks is needed. For example, some objects should be temporarily set to adequate intermediate goals.