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The International Journal of Robotics Research
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A Framework and Architecture for Multi-Robot Coordination

Rafael Fierro

MARHES Laboratory, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK USA

Aveek Das

GRASP Laboratory, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA USA

John Spletzer

GRASP Laboratory, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA USA

Joel Esposito

GRASP Laboratory, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA USA

Vijay Kumar

GRASP Laboratory, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA USA

James P Ostrowski

GRASP Laboratory, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA USA

George Pappas

GRASP Laboratory, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA USA

Camillo J Taylor

GRASP Laboratory, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA USA

Yerang Hur

SDRL Laboratory, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA USA

Rajeev Alur

SDRL Laboratory, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA USA

Insup Lee

SDRL Laboratory, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA USA

Greg Grudic

Department of Computer Science, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO USA

B Southall

Sarnoff Corporation, Princeton, USA

In this paper, we present a framework and the software architecture for the deployment of multiple autonomous robots in an unstructured and unknown environment, with applications ranging from scouting and reconnaissance, to search and rescue, to manipulation tasks, to cooperative localization and mapping, and formation control. Our software framework allows a modular and hierarchical approach to programming deliberative and reactive behaviors in autonomous operation. Formal definitions for sequential composition, hierarchical composition, and parallel composition allow the bottom-up development of complex software systems. We demonstrate the algorithms and software on an experimental testbed that involves a group of car-like robots, each using a single omnidirectional camera as a sensor without explicit use of odometry.

Key Words: multi-robot coordination • hierarchical hybrid systems • vision-based control

The International Journal of Robotics Research, Vol. 21, No. 10-11, 977-995 (2002)
DOI: 10.1177/0278364902021010981
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