A MILP Scheduling Problem for Multi-Robot Logistics Systems in a Precision Farming Application and a Polynomial Time Optimal Algorithm

In this paper, we present an innovative use of multi-robot systems in a precision farming application proposed in the European project “CANOPIES”. The considered scenario is then formalized identifying a real-time scheduling problem that needs to be solved for the efficient use of the multi-robot platform. A solution to the proposed real-time scheduling problem is first identified by proposing a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) problem formulation which is iteratively solved within a receding horizon time window. Then, we propose a polynomial time optimal algorithm able to solve a simplified but relevant scenario of the proposed multi-robot scheduling problem. Numerical examples are presented to corroborate the formal analysis of the proposed algorithm.