Collaboration vs. Observation: An Empirical Study in Multiagent Planning under Resource Constraint

Abstract

A team of robots and an exploratory mission are modeled as a multiagent planning problem in a decentralized decision theoretical framework. In this application domain, agents are constrained by resources such as their remaining battery power. In this context, there is an intrinsic relation between collaboration, computation and the need for the agents to observe their resource level. This paper reports on an empirical study of this relationship.