Int. J. Computational Vision and Robotics, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2011 49 Copyright © 2011 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. A PSO based multi-robot task allocation B.B. Choudhury* Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indira Gandhi Institute of Technology, Sarang – 759146, Orissa, India E-mail: bbcnit@gmail.com *Corresponding author B.B. Biswal Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Rourkela, Rourkela – 769008, Orissa, India E-mail: bibhuti.biswal@gmail.com Abstract: Recent research trends and technology developments have been instrumental to the realisation of autonomous multi-robot systems (MRS) performing increasingly complex missions. However the selection of candidate robots from a team of robots for performing the task(s) from a set of desired tasks in order to achieve an economical and feasible process poses a difficult problem. Task distribution methodologies have to make sure that not only the global assignment is achieved, but also the tasks are well assigned among the robots. This paper presents the particle swarm optimisation (PSO) algorithm designed to address this problem. A two-phase solution methodology is used to solve the multi-robot task allocation (MRTA) problem wherein the task capability of the robots is determined during the first segment and the task allocation optimisation is done using PSO during the second segment. The solution to MRTA problem in dynamic environment is proposed using a novel PSO based algorithm and is compared with that using linear programming (LP). Keywords: multi-robot task allocation; MRTA; multi-robot systems; MRS; particle swarm optimisation; PSO; linear programming; LP. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Choudhury, B.B. and Biswal, B.B. (2011) ‘A PSO based multi-robot task allocation’, Int. J. Computational Vision and Robotics, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp.49–61. Biographical notes: B.B. Choudhury is a graduate of Mechanical Engineering in the year 1998 from Marathwada University, India. He obtained his MTech in Production Engineering from the University College of Engineering Burla, India and completed his PhD in the area of robotics from the National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, India. He has published more than 30 papers at national and international levels. His areas of research interest include multi-robot task allocation, CAD/CAM/CIM, flexible manufacturing system and manufacturing science. Presently, he is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Indira Gandhi Institute of Technology, Sarang, Orissa, India.