Integration Framework for Collaborative Remote Physical Agents

This paper presents a control structure for multiple heterogeneous remote physical agents (RPAs). An RPA is a robot with fundamental sensing, navigation and locomotion capabilities. The main objective of this work is to develop an architectural framework that permits a high degree of autonomy for each individual RPA, while providing a coordination structure that enables the group to act as a collaborative team at a high level of abstraction. The proposed approach is to develop an agent-based framework, based on the Coordinated Intelligent Rational Agent (CIR-Agent) model, that supports sophisticated interactions between a heterogeneous group of RPAs at the cognitive level, including the ability to negotiate and distribute tasks, while monitoring progress in a distributed fashion, distribute sensing and control at the action level.