Adaptive mobile charging stations for multi-robot systems

Abstract

We consider systems of mobile robots that execute a transportation task and periodically recharge from a docking station. The location of the docking station has a considerable effect on task performance. In nonstationary tasks the optimal dock location may vary over the length of the task. In multiple-robot systems, spatial interference between charging and working robots can make it difficult to find an optimal dock location, even in static tasks. We propose a new approach whereby the dock is itself an autonomous robot that attempts to incrementally improve its location. We show simulation results from a simple local controller that adapts to nonstationary tasks and spatial interference, and thus improves overall task performance compared to a static dock.