Rational Handling of Multiple Goals for Mobile Robots
Richard Goodwin and Reid Simmons,
School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University
The mobile robot planning domain is dynamic, with goals becoming active
asynchronously. In order to successfully operate in this environment, a
robot must be able to interrupt and reformulate its plan of action
on-the-fly. This report investigates a method for incorporating the
accomplishment of a new goal into a partially executed plan. A decision
theoretic approach using net present value as the decision criterion
serves as the basis for determining goal ordering dynamically. The
appropriateness of net present value over other criteria is argued. The
approach has been implemented on a robot operating in an office setting.
Examples from this domain and a planetary exploration domain are used to
show the advantages of the approach with respect to fixed priority and
heuristic approaches.
Postscript