ABSTRACT
Behavior-based robotics has been an active and popular approach to robot control in the multi-robot domain, allowing multi-robot systems to adapt to realworld environments. Behavior-based systems are praised for their robustness and simplicity of construction [Bro86, Mae89, Mat92a]. Based on Brooks’ behaviorbased subsumption architecture [Bro86], for example, Parker developed the ALLIANCE architecture [Par94] for controlling groups of heterogeneous robots and demonstrated it on a group of four physical robots performing puck manipulation and box-pushing. He divides tasks into subtasks, with groups of behaviors addressing each subtask. At the highest level, “mutually inhibitory motivational behaviors are designed to direct the overall behavior of a robot, which in turn activates lower-level behaviors to perform a subtask” [Par94]. Along with the typical sensor-based conditions that might trigger motivational behaviors, Parker adds impatience and acquiescence. Impatience increases if no other robot is tempting to solve the subtask associated with a motivational behavior, while acquiescence inhibits the behavior if the robot is not successful in the subtask. The combination of the ordinary conditions of impatience and acquiescence in a group enables the robots to cooperate in striving to achieve an overall task.
