| Humans often work in groups to more efficiently complete a collection of tasks. In doing so, they are able to transition from one task to another with little effort and often use verbal communication as a medium to accomplish cooperation. The same group effort can be applied to generic robots working to complete a variety of tasks. A generic robot is a robot which requires no reprogramming and no retrofitting with additional tools when its task assignment is changed. This research will explore the benefits of generic robot reallocation. The reallocation will require communication between managers and the generic helper robots in completing a prescribed goal consisting of a collection of different tasks. Three levels of robotic reallocation assignment will be investigated: no reallocation, non-preemptive reallocation, and preemptive reallocation. As the reallocation level increases, so does the demand on the generic helper robots to either increase the amount of participation and/or to respond to task reassignment. |
