A novel multimodal multi-objective optimization algorithm for multi-robot task allocation

Multi-robot task allocation (MRTA) is widely used in various fields and plays an important role in some complex task environments due to its ability to distribute parallel processing tasks. However, the multi-robot cooperative system is susceptible to actual environments or preferences of decision-makers. Therefore, providing enough solutions/schemes in the MRTA is important. To improve the reliability and feasibility of obtained solution set, an improved multimodal multi-objective differential evolution algorithm hybrid with a simulated annealing algorithm (IMMODE-SA) is proposed to solve MRTA problems in this study. In the proposed IMMODE-SA, a novel population initialization method is used to improve the population quality, and a redundant solution deletion method is employed to delete redundant solutions during the search process. Moreover, a simulated annealing algorithm is utilized to improve the exploitation capability in the last generation of evolutionary process. To verify the performance of the proposed algorithm, extensive simulation experiments are conducted on three MRTA instances. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm performs better than other competitors on MRTA instances in terms of Hypervolume (HV). Also, the validity of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated via three experiments and experimental analysis results indicate that the IMMODE-SA can provide more equivalent optimal schemes to decision makers. Finally, it is crucial to solve MRTA problems with time window constraints.