Multi-attribute dispatching method with dynamically adjustable weights for multirobot transportation systems

Task dispatching of the multirobot transportation systems requires using the system resources efficiently to complete tasks as specified, and it is a key issue for the managing and controlling of the multirobot transportation systems. In this paper, a multi-attribute dispatching approach with dynamically adjustable weights(AWMA) is proposed, which takes the load balance and deadlock avoidance into consideration according to the system resources. Firstly, the formal model of the system is specified according to the structure of the system. Secondly, the way to decide the weight for each attribute is described in detail, and then the dispatching procedure is given. Thirdly, to validate the effectiveness of our method, a simulation system of the multirobot transportation system is designed. Lastly, simulation experiments are conducted on a hypothetical system using the designed simulation system. Three commonly used dispatching methods are compared with the method we proposed. The simulation results show that the proposed method is better than other methods in cases when resources are scarce. It can be seen that the proposed method can make efficient use of the system resources, balance the load of each resource, and avoid deadlock.