Towards Dynamic Team Formation for Robot Ensembles

Abstract

We present an investigation of dynamic team formation strategies for robot ensembles performing a collection of single and two-robot tasks. Specifically, we consider the abstract “stick and pebble” problem, as a variation of the “stick pulling” problem discussed in the literature. We present a formulation of the dynamic team formation problem that is independent of ensemble size and develop a macroscopic analytical description of the ensemble dynamics. The macroscopic model is then used to determine the optimal teaming strategy for two different performance metrics. We present agent-based simulation results to support the validity of our macroscopic analysis.