COOPERATIVE MOBILE ROBOTICS - ANTECEDENTS AND DIRECTIONS

There has been increased research interest in systems composed of mult iple autonomous mobile robots exhibiting cooperative behavior. Groups of mobile robots are constructed, with an aim to studying such issues as group architecture, resource conflict, origin of cooperation, learn ing, and geometric problems. As yet, few applications of cooperative r obotics have been reported, and supporting theory is still in its form ative stages. In this paper, we give a critical survey of existing wor ks and discuss open problems in this field, emphasizing the various th eoretical issues that arise in the study of cooperative robotics. We d escribe the intellectual heritages that have guided early research, as well as possible additions to the set of existing motivations.