UC Riverside

The goal is to create a robotic search party that autonomously coordinates tasks to efficiently find the target. The induced coordination minimizes the communication, computation, and distance traveled while maximizing area covered. Each robot in our system has a unique combination of sensors and abilities. These include movement speed, localization accuracy, and computational abilities. The Market based algorithm allows the robot to achieve the above goals effectively. Allowing each robot to exchange tasks in an effort to maximize their unique utilities. With the addition of a value map as a representation of what areas have been observed, the robots have a driving force to move to unseen locations due to the increased value. Each robot maintains its own version of the map until it encounters another robot and share value maps. The combination allows each robot to understand what areas have been observed, hence limiting possible locations to move to. When robots meet, the algorithm pushes them away with the second path method. The robots divert themselves in an effort to maximize the area searched. Our system is distributed with no central agent with full knowledge or control of any system. Reducing the effect of robot failure to the system.