An Event-Triggered k-WTA Model With Experimental Verification on Multirobot System

Ak-winners-take-all (k-WTA) model is capable of selectingkwinners fromnparticipants via competitive operations for dynamic task allocation in a multirobot system (MRS). In this article, an event-triggeredk-WTA (ET-kWTA) model is proposed to improve communication efficiency and alleviate the computational burden of competitive coordination in an MRS. By detecting the rate of change onk-WTA outputs of each robot, an ET condition based on Lyapunov stability is derived. Through the ET condition, different communication and computation frequencies are selected so that the computational performance and communication frequency are equilibrated. Thus, communication interactions and the computational burden of the MRS are subtly reduced. Theoretical analyses are provided to guarantee the convergence and robustness of the proposed ET-kWTA model. Furthermore, comparative simulations and experiments are conducted to illustrate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed ET-kWTA model.