Multirobot system architecture: environment representation and protocols

An approach to the problem of interoperability in open and heterogeneous multirobot system is presented. It is based on the paradigm of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and a generic representation of the environment. A robot, and generally a cognitive and intelligent device, is seen as a collection of its capabilities exposed as services. Several experimental protocols (for publishing, discovering, arranging, and executing the composite services) are proposed in order to assure the interoperability in the system. The environment representation, the description language for tasks and service interfaces definition, as well as the protocols constitute together the proposed information technology for automatic task accomplishment in an open heterogeneous multirobot system.