Multi-agent robotic systems are useful in many practical applications.
For some tasks, such as holding a conference, cooperation among agent
s are necessary. For other tasks, such as cleaning a room, multiple ag
ents can work in parallel for better performance. This paper provides
help-based (HCP) and coordination-based (CCP) protocols for controllin
g agents to accomplish multi-agent tasks. The HCP utilizes efficient n
egotiation to coordinate agents into groups. The CCP improves overall
performance by exchanging local knowledge among agents and making deci
sions in parallel. A reactive and modularized agent architecture was e
mployed to implement the protocols. Since each protocol is embedded in
to the architecture, it is efficient and effective. In addition, the p
rotocols are deadlock-free. The protocols were utilized to solve the O
bject-Sorting Task, which abstracts two characteristics of tasks: para
llelism and cooperation. The experimental results showed that 1) both
HCP and CCP are stable under different workload; 2) the protocols can
effectively utilize the agent-power to achieve super-linear improvemen
t; 3) The CCP is better than the HCP in both performance and speedup.