{"ID":2831298,"CreatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","UpdatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","DeletedAt":null,"paper_url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.08813","arxiv_id":"2512.08813","title":"Heterogeneity in Multi-Robot Environmental Monitoring for Resolving Time-Conflicting Tasks","abstract":"Multi-robot systems performing continuous tasks face a performance trade-off when interrupted by urgent, time-critical sub-tasks. We investigate this trade-off in a scenario where a team must balance area patrolling with locating an anomalous radio signal. To address this trade-off, we evaluate both behavioral heterogeneity through agent role specialization (\"patrollers\" and \"searchers\") and sensing heterogeneity (i.e., only the searchers can sense the radio signal). Through simulation, we identify the Pareto-optimal trade-offs under varying team compositions, with behaviorally heterogeneous teams demonstrating the most balanced trade-offs in the majority of cases. When sensing capability is restricted, heterogeneous teams with half of the sensing-capable agents perform comparably to homogeneous teams, providing cost-saving rationale for restricting sensor payload deployment. Our findings demonstrate that pre-deployment role and sensing specialization are powerful design considerations for multi-robot systems facing time-conflicting tasks, where varying the degree of behavioral heterogeneity can tune system performance toward either task.","short_abstract":"Multi-robot systems performing continuous tasks face a performance trade-off when interrupted by urgent, time-critical sub-tasks. We investigate this trade-off in a scenario where a team must balance area patrolling with locating an anomalous radio signal. To address this trade-off, we evaluate both behavioral heteroge...","url_abs":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.08813","url_pdf":"https://arxiv.org/pdf/2512.08813v1","authors":"[\"Connor York\",\"Zachary R Madin\",\"Paul O'Dowd\",\"Edmund R Hunt\"]","published":"2025-12-09T17:06:21Z","proceeding":"cs.RO","tasks":"[\"cs.RO\"]","methods":"[]","has_code":false}