Using Anytime Planning for Centralized Coordination of Multiple Robots in Real-Time Dynamic Environments

Abstract

We are investigating the use of planning in multi-robot, real-time, dynamic environments. Each individual robot is considered to be an effector of a centralized planning sys-tem. In a real-time environment, it is important to be careful to ensure that the time required to find a good plan does not itself reduce the system’s ability to complete its tasks in a timely manner. Our physically situated system coordinates a group of security robots that guard an area against intruders. Our approach uses a variation of the three-level paradigm for robot architectures (e.g. (Bonasso et al. 1997) (Brill et al. 1998)) in conjunction with an anytime approach to planning (Dean et al. 1995) (Zilberstein & Russell 1993). In this do-main, the system must ensure that the total amount of time spent planning and then executing the plan is short enough that the security robots can still capture the intruders. Too