Hierarchical Mission Planning for Large Multi-Agent Coordination
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current mission management systems are inefficient due to high computational expense with large agent populations, incomplete information about mission environments, and inability to autonomously coordinate multiple agents executing heterogeneous operations, leading to resource misallocation and increased costs.
Innovation Solution
A hierarchical mission management system that assigns mission specifications to multiple levels of agent groups, using a hierarchy specification to allocate tasks and resources, with a communication system to facilitate coordination between mission planners and agents, allowing for dynamic re-planning and resource allocation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If a single system is used to manage missions with large agent populations, then complete information about task requirements can be obtained, but computational expense increases proportionately with agent population size
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the mission management system into a hierarchical structure with multiple levels (e.g., Level 1, Level 2, Level 3 mission planners). Each level manages a subset of agents and tasks, segmenting the overall computational problem into smaller, more manageable sub-problems. This segmentation reduces the computational expense at each level while collectively maintaining comprehensive task requirement information across the entire hierarchy.
2Reliability
If resource allocation is optimized by searching entire agent population, then task requirements can be matched accurately, but time consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The hierarchical structure segments the agent population into multiple levels, where each level performs resource allocation for its specific subset. This eliminates the need to search the entire agent population simultaneously, reducing allocation time while maintaining matching accuracy through coordinated decision-making across hierarchical levels.
Solution Approach 2:
Higher levels in the hierarchy perform preliminary task analysis and requirements definition before lower levels execute detailed agent allocation. This preliminary action at upper levels prepares task specifications in advance, enabling lower levels to quickly match agents to tasks without performing exhaustive searches, thus reducing overall allocation time while maintaining accuracy.
3Ease of operation
If manual inspection and maintenance methods are used, then flexible operation can be achieved, but cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a universal hierarchical mission management system that can handle multiple types of operations (inspection, maintenance, monitoring) through a single framework. This multi-functional system replaces the need for separate customized manual methods for each operation type, reducing costs while maintaining operational flexibility through adaptive task allocation and agent assignment capabilities.
4Extent of automation
If semi-autonomous systems are deployed for specific operations, then automation level increases, but system complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple semi-autonomous systems into a single hierarchical mission management framework. Instead of having separate complex systems for different operations, the hierarchical structure integrates them all, reducing overall system complexity. The standardized interface and unified resource allocation mechanism simplify the system architecture while maintaining high automation levels across all operations.
Data Source
AI summary
The different advantageous embodiments further provide a system for hierarchical mission management comprising a number of mission planners, a data processing system, and a communication system. The number of mission planners are associated with a number of agent groups. The data processing system is configured to execute the number of mission planners. The communication system is configured to provide communication between the number of mission planners.