Resource Sharing and Deadlock Avoidance in Multi Robot Systems Using Market Based Approach

In an unknown, unstructured and dynamic environment, the loss of the capabilities in heterogeneous robots assigned to do multiple tasks can be an issue. One main hindrance towards achieving goal in a dynamic environment is the occurrence of a deadlock or conflict between robots on bottle neck resources present in the environment. This study presents Market Based Approach as a method for providing a solution to different deadlock situations that may arise due to the conflict of robots on a resource. A conflict on charging station is considered in this research to validate the proof of concept. A battery charging station is installed in the unfamiliar environment for the charge depleted robots. The bottleneck resource is assigned to the deserving candidate that provides overall benefit to the system. In the present case the profit is the less charge consumption from the charging station by the charge depleted robots. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme is demonstrated by applying it on a team of heterogeneous robots assigned to perform tasks in a simulated dynamic environment.