Minimizing Communication in Uncertain Multi-Agent Schedules

NASA AMES Research Center Computer Science, 2017-18

Liaison(s): Dr. Jeremy Frank
Advisor(s): Jim Boerkoel
Students(s): Grace Diehl (PM), David Chu, Marina Knittel, Judy Lin, William Lloyd

Our project aims to provide NASA with new scheduling protocols for multi-agent systems (e.g., a robot team). In such systems, scheduling disturbances (due to environmental factors or equipment malfunction) may necessitate rescheduling. However, communicating new schedules to all agents can be resource intensive. Reducing rescheduling can improve the performance of multi-agent systems when communication resources are limited. Our team has designed three algorithms to minimize rescheduling, trading communication for schedule quality. Further, we developed infrastructure for testing such algorithms.