Hoplites: A market-based framework for planned tight coordination in multirobot teams

In this paper we address tasks for multirobot teams that require solving a distributed multi-agent planning problem in which the actions of robots are tightly coupled. The uncertainty inherent in these tasks also necessitates persistent tight coordination between teammates throughout execution. Existing approaches to coordination cannot adequately meet the technical demands of such tasks. In response, we have developed a market-based framework, Hoplites, that consists of two novel coordination mechanisms. Passive coordination quickly produces locally-developed solutions while active coordination produces complex team solutions via negotiation between teammates. Robots use the market to efficiently vet candidate solutions and to choose the coordination mechanism that best matches the current demands of the task. In experiments, Hoplites significantly outperforms even its nearest competitors, particularly in the most complex instances of a domain. We also present implementation results on a team of mobile robots.