Decentralised vs partially centralised self-organisation model for mobile robots in large structure assembly

Abstract Currently, manufacturing companies are heavily investing into the automation of manufacturing processes. The push to improve productivity and efficiency is increasing the demand for more flexible and adaptable solutions than the currently common dedicated automation systems. In this paper, the planning problem for mobile robots in large structure assembly was addressed. Despite near-optimal results, the previously developed hybrid agent behaviour model was found to lack responsiveness and scalability. For that reason, an alternative, fully decentralised agent behaviour model was developed and compared to the hybrid one. Through simulated experiments, it was found that the decentralised agent behaviour model achieved much higher responsiveness; however, it required additional spare capacity to compensate for its decision-making imperfections.