Communication fault tolerance in distributed robotic systems

The task of assigning a team of mobile robotic systems to individual job-locations has many challenges. We use the dynamical systems approach of coupled selection equations to achieve this problem. This intrinsically distributed algorithm has several advantages over traditional integer programs and other distributed approaches: 1) no backtracking is needed, 2) it can be used for NP-hard problems, such as assigning multiple robots with different capabilities to a certain job (three- or higher-index assignment problems), and 3) feasibility of the obtained solutions can be guaranteed. The key point of the applicability in real distributed environments is a distinctive communication fault tolerance so that the necessary data communication between the different processes does not alter to an Achilles heel of the system. Therefore, the present paper addresses the loss of messages in a distributed robotic system based on coupled selection equations, and demonstrates the remarkable communication fault tolerance of this specific dynamical system approach by computer simulations.