Introspection on control-grounded capabilities. Relevance in task allocation problems

Our proposal is aimed at achieving reliable task allocation in cooperative agent-controlled systems by means of introspection on control-oriented features. This new approach is beneficial as it improves the way agents can coordinate with each other to perform the proposed tasks in a real cooperative environment. Introspection aims at including reliable control-oriented knowledge of the controlled systems in the agents' decision-making. To that end, control-grounded capabilities, inspired by the agent metaphor, are used in the task utility/cost functions. Such control-grounded capabilities guarantee an appropriate agent-oriented representation of the specifications and other relevant details encapsulated in every automatic controller of the controlled systems. In particular, this proposal is demonstrated in the successful performing of rescue operations by cooperative mobile robots in a simulated environment. Experimental results and conclusions are shown, stressing the relevance of this new approach in the sure and trustworthy attainment of allocated tasks for improving multi-agent performance.