Improving the Efficiency of a Decentralized Tasking Algorithm for UAV Teams with Asynchronous Communications
Luke B. Johnson, Sameera S. Ponda, Han‐Lim Choi, Jonathan P. How · 2010
This work presents a decentralized task allocation algorithm for networked agents communicating through an asynchronous channel.The algorithm extends the Consensus-Based Bundle Algorithm (CBBA) to account for more realistic asynchronous communication protocols.Direct implementation of CBBA into such an asynchronous setting requires agents to frequently broadcast their information states, which would cause significant communication overflow.In contrast, the extension proposed in this paper, named Asynchronous CBBA (ACBBA), minimizes communication load while preserving the convergence properties.ACBBA applies a new set of local deconfliction rules that do not require access to the global information state.This new deconfliction protocol also features consistent handling of out-of-order messages and detection of redundant information.A real-time software implementation using multiple PCs communicating through the user datagram protocol (UDP) validates the proposed algorithm.