Protocols for collaboration, coordination and dynamic role assignment in a robot team

Creation of cooperative robot teams for complex tasks requires not only agents that can function well individually but also agents that can coordinate their actions. The paper presents several methods for collaboration and coordination in a team of soccer-playing robots. In our approach, fixed collaborative supporting behaviours allow for robots to aid each other and decrease interference. Coordinated dynamic role assignment then permits the robots to take advantage of their current location on the field. We present a robust protocol for dynamic role assignment based upon multithreaded computer programming that mitigates the risk often associated with initiating a role change in a distributed system. This protocol is independent from the manner in which the decision to switch roles is made and would therefore support any approach to role assignment. The individual and supporting behaviours were tested at RoboCup 2001 in Seattle, Washington.