An Evolutionary Approach to Capacitated Resource Distribution by a Multiple-Agent Team [chapter]

Mudassar Hussain, Bahram Kimiaghalam, Abdollah Homaifar, Albert Esterline, Bijan Sayyarodsari
2003 Lecture Notes in Computer Science  
A hybrid implementation of an evolutionary metahueristic scheme with local optimization has been applied to a constrained problem of routing and scheduling a team of robotic agents to perform a resource distribution task in a possibly dynamic environment. In this paper a central planner is responsible for planning routes and schedules for the entire team of cooperating robots. The potential computational complexity of such a centralized solution is addressed by an innovative genetic approach
more » ... t transforms the task of multiple route design into a special manifestation of the traveling salesperson problem. The key advantage of this approach is that globally optimal or near optimal solutions can be produced in a timeframe amenable for real-time implementation. The algorithm was tested on a set of standard problems with encouraging results.
doi:10.1007/3-540-45105-6_81 fatcat:7w3i546qkna4ze5eg5q3gl5cra