Layering Coalition Formation With Task Allocation

This paper presents an approach for layering lower-level coalition formation with higher-level, traditional task allocation. At the lower level, coalitions to solve multi-robot tasks are formed using our ASyMTRe approach that maps environmental sensors and perceptual and motor schemas to the required flow of information in the robot team, automatically reconfiguring the connections of schemas within and across robots to form efficient solutions. At the higher level, a traditional task allocation approach is used to enable individual robots and/or coalitions to compete for task assignments through time-extended task allocation. We present a motivating example of site clearing and formalize the problem. We then present the proposed approach of layering ASyMTRe with task-allocation. As this is still a work in progress, we outline planned experiments we intend to develop to validate