Value-based action selection for exploration and dynamic target observation with robot teams

Abstract

Move Value Estimation for Robot Teams (MVERT) is a robot action selection algorithm for teams performing multiple competing tasks. The goal of MVERT is to select actions for robot team members to maximize the team's joint utility toward overall mission progress in a computationally efficient manner. MVERT is fully distributed, with each robot using information about other teammates to select its action with the greatest value. MVERT selects actions for a robot team to perform multi-task exploration and dynamic target observation. Successful action selection is demonstrated in simulation for exploration and in simulation and on robots for dynamic target observation.