Integrating predicate reasoning and reactive behaviors for coordination of multi-robot systems

To overcome computational expensive problem in coordination of multi-robot systems (MRS) for unknown environment explorations, an integrated coordinated algorithm is proposed in this paper. The algorithm integrated predicate based reasoning and reactive behaviors to realize coordination and obstacle avoidance. An MRS partitioning strategy is proposed to reduce the scale of problem. Then, an initialization strategy realizes dispersion of robots over the environment, and task assignments at the beginning. When a robot has finished its task, predicate based reasoning is used to assign task and to realize cooperative exploration among robots. Robots explore the unknown environment through a series of zigzag trajectories. To deal with obstacle avoidance, a few of reactive behaviors are defined. Supervisors are resident in middle level of a hierarchical architecture for each robot. The results are validated by computer simulations.