On Embedding a Dataflow Architecture in a Multi-Robot System

In real-world robotic systems, new jobs may need to be executed even when the robots are executing the ones assigned earlier. These new jobs can crop up asynchronously and on-the-fly. In this paper, we propose a mechanism that uses the concept of dataflow computing coupled with mobile agent technology, to ensure that new jobs can be added online with minimal interference to the currently executing jobs. The entire system need not be brought to a standstill because of the addition and execution of the new jobs. The proposed mechanism facilitates simultaneous executions of the new jobs along with the ones currently executing. The mechanism also helps make the overall system constituting robots, embedded systems, sensors, personal computers, and mobile and static agents, execute in a decentralized and distributed manner. Experiments are conducted in both emulated and real worlds, using such heterogeneous entities to portray the proposed mechanism.