Market based framework for multiple AUVs cooperation

A “Market” based framework for multiple AUVs team is introduced in this paper. It is a distributed meta-level task allocation framework. The formulation and the basic concepts of the “Market” such as “goods” and “price” are discussed first, then the basic algorithm of the “auction”. The loosely coupled v-MDTSP tasks are considered as an example of the task allocation mission. A multiple AUV team controller and a detailed algorithm are developed for such applications. The simulation results show that the controller has the advantages such as robustness and low complexity and it can achieve better optimization results than the classical central controller (such as GA) in some tasks. And the comparison of two different local solvers also implies that we should get the reasonable task allocation even not using the high quality algorithm, which can considerably decrease the cooperation computation. YOU Guang-xin, born in 1976, received his B. S. degree in Ship Building Engineering in 1999 at Harbin Engineering University. Now he works for the Ph. D degree in Fluid Mechanics, and his main research interests focus on the field of Multion and Coordination. PANG Yong-jie, born in 1955. He is a professor and supervisor for Ph. D candidate in school of Shipbuilding Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, China. His main research fields: design of underwater vehicles and exploiting systems of resources in deep ocean. He has authored or co-authored a book and more than 30 papers in national and international journals and conference proceedings. JIANG Da-peng, born in 1981, focusing on the research of Multiple AUVs Cooperation and Coordination. He is now a Master candidate in School of Shipbuilding Engineering, Harbin Engineering University.