**ALLIANCE: An Architecture for Fault Tolerant Multi-Robot Cooperation** **Lynne E. Parker** This report introduces the ALLIANCE architecture, a software framework designed to enable fault-tolerant, cooperative control of heterogeneous teams of mobile robots. ALLIANCE allows robots to select appropriate actions based on mission requirements, environmental conditions, and internal states, using a behavior-based approach with mathematically modeled motivations such as impatience and acquiescence. The architecture is designed to handle dynamic and unpredictable environments, robustly responding to unexpected changes and robot failures. **Key Features:** - **Assumptions:** Robots can detect the effects of their actions, recognize actions of teammates, share a common language, and work collaboratively without direct competition. - **Overview:** ALLIANCE is a fully distributed, behavior-based architecture that allows robots to adaptively select actions through motivational behaviors. - **Motivational Behaviors:** These behaviors control the activation of behavior sets, which correspond to high-level task-achieving functions. Motivations are influenced by sensory feedback, inter-robot communication, and internal factors like impatience and acquiescence. - **Formal Model:** The architecture includes parameters for activation thresholds, communication rates, and impatience rates to ensure reliable and adaptive behavior. - **Termination Proofs:** The architecture guarantees mission completion under certain conditions, such as sufficient task coverage and active robot teams. **Applications:** - **Hazardous Waste Cleanup:** A laboratory version of this mission demonstrates the architecture's effectiveness, where robots must find spills, move them to destinations, and report progress. **Conclusion:** ALLIANCE provides a robust framework for multi-robot cooperation, enabling teams to adapt to dynamic environments and robot failures, making it suitable for a wide range of applications.**ALLIANCE: An Architecture for Fault Tolerant Multi-Robot Cooperation** **Lynne E. Parker** This report introduces the ALLIANCE architecture, a software framework designed to enable fault-tolerant, cooperative control of heterogeneous teams of mobile robots. ALLIANCE allows robots to select appropriate actions based on mission requirements, environmental conditions, and internal states, using a behavior-based approach with mathematically modeled motivations such as impatience and acquiescence. The architecture is designed to handle dynamic and unpredictable environments, robustly responding to unexpected changes and robot failures. **Key Features:** - **Assumptions:** Robots can detect the effects of their actions, recognize actions of teammates, share a common language, and work collaboratively without direct competition. - **Overview:** ALLIANCE is a fully distributed, behavior-based architecture that allows robots to adaptively select actions through motivational behaviors. - **Motivational Behaviors:** These behaviors control the activation of behavior sets, which correspond to high-level task-achieving functions. Motivations are influenced by sensory feedback, inter-robot communication, and internal factors like impatience and acquiescence. - **Formal Model:** The architecture includes parameters for activation thresholds, communication rates, and impatience rates to ensure reliable and adaptive behavior. - **Termination Proofs:** The architecture guarantees mission completion under certain conditions, such as sufficient task coverage and active robot teams. **Applications:** - **Hazardous Waste Cleanup:** A laboratory version of this mission demonstrates the architecture's effectiveness, where robots must find spills, move them to destinations, and report progress. **Conclusion:** ALLIANCE provides a robust framework for multi-robot cooperation, enabling teams to adapt to dynamic environments and robot failures, making it suitable for a wide range of applications.