Mobile Robotic JChoc DisSolver: A Distributed Constraints Reasoning Platform for Mobile Multi-robot Problems

摘要

Due to the computational complexity (NP-Complete) of Constraint Programming (CP), several researchers have abandoned its use in robotic research field. In the last decade, as many approaches of real-time constraint handling have been proposed, constraint programming has proved to be a stand-alone technology that can be used in several research fields. Even if mobile robotics is a complex research area, in this paper, we prove that distributed constraint reasoning techniques can be utilized as a very elegant formalism for multi-robot decision making. First, we describe dynamic distributed constraint satisfaction formalism, the new platform architecture "RoboChoc" and specify how decision making can be controlled in multi-robots environment using dynamic communication protocols. Then we provide an example application that illustrates how our platform can be used to solve multi-robot problems using constraint programming techniques.