Performance based task assignment in multi-robot patrolling

This article applies a performance metric to the multi-robot patrolling task to more efficiently distribute patrol areas among robot team members. The multi-robot patrolling task employs multiple robots to perform frequent visits to known areas in an environment, while minimizing the time between node visits. Conventional strategies for performing this task assume that the robots will perform as expected and do not address situations in which some team members patrol inefficiently. However, reliable performance of team members may not always be a valid assumption. This paper considers an approach for monitoring robot performance in a patrolling task and dynamically reassigning tasks from those team members that perform poorly. Experimental results from simulation and on a team of indoor robots demonstrate that in using this approach, tasks can be dynamically and more efficiently distributed in a multi-robot patrolling application.