A distributed protocol for motion coordination in free-range vehicular systems

Abstract

This work extends our research on motion coordination of free-range vehicular systems based on concepts and results borrowed from resource allocation systems (RAS) theory, to vehicular systems with limited communication range among the vehicles. Similar to the earlier work, the employed model assumes the tessellation of the motion plane into cells, which are allocated to the traveling vehicles in a controlled manner that ensures collision-free and live motion. On the other hand, the limited communication range of the vehicles implies that full synchronization of their access to the considered cells is not possible any more, and yields new challenges for the deployed supervisory control policies.To enable the development of supervisory policies capable of providing the necessary partial synchronization of the cell allocation, we modify the structure of the adopted tessellation by allowing the concurrent occupation of a cell by up to two vehicles at a time, instead of only one, that was assumed earlier. This modification renders polynomially computable the relevant maximally permissive cell allocation policy, and it enables the implementation of this policy in the form of a distributed protocol that is feasible in the context of the communication constraints that are considered in this work.

Numerical Evaluation of Sample Gathering Solutions for Mobile Robots

“…Although the collision avoidance problem is not treated in this paper, in the mentioned experiment the possible collisions are avoided by pausing the motion of one robot. In future work we intend to embed formal tools inspired by resource allocation techniques for collision and deadlock avoidance [54,55].…”

Robust supervision using shared-buffers in automated manufacturing systems with unreliable resources

“…Recently, modern information technology has been increasingly and extensively applied to AMSs research. On the basis of the up-to-date technology in information science and engineering, researchers addressed a number of issues regarding modeling, simulation, control, and scheduling for AMSs (Ahmad et al, 2011;Choi & Ko, 2009;Ferrarini & Piroddi, 2008;Hsueh, 2010;Huang, Shi, & Xu, 2012;Huang et al, 2013;Jeng et al, 2002;Roszkowska & Reveliotis, 2013;Wang & Wu, 1998;Wu et al, 2008;Xing et al, 2012;Yalcin & Namballa, 2005). As a consequence, this field develops rapidly, and manufacturers can benefit much in reducing cost, increasing productivity, and improving products' quality so as to meet the global market competition.…”

Archives of Control Sciences

“…The ineffectiveness of these models in providing the above properties is mainly due to the assumed representation of the robot system, whose operation is abstracted in continuous time. Devoid of these disadvantages is the approach proposed in [8][9][10], where the logic of robot coordination is derived using the DES (Discrete Event System) formalism. The proposed model ensures correct space sharing by a group of robots through imposing certain constraints on their motion, and can be applied to any mobile robots, accomplishing any arbitrarily assumed missions, and for both centralized and distributed supervisory-control architecture.…”