{"ID":2864021,"CreatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","UpdatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","DeletedAt":null,"paper_url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.25556","arxiv_id":"2509.25556","title":"Exhaustive-Serve-Longest Control for Multi-robot Scheduling Systems","abstract":"We study online task allocation for multi-robot, multi-queue systems with stochastic arrivals and switching delays. Time is slotted; each location can host at most one robot per slot; service consumes one slot; switching between locations incurs a one-slot travel delay; and arrivals are independent Bernoulli processes. We formulate a discounted-cost Markov decision process and propose Exhaustive-Serve-Longest (ESL), a simple real-time policy that serves exhaustively when the current location is nonempty and, when idle, switches to a longest unoccupied nonempty location, and we prove the optimality of this policy. As baselines, we tune a fixed-dwell cyclic policy via a discrete-time delay expression and implement a first-come-first-serve policy. Across server-to-location ratios and loads, ESL consistently yields lower discounted holding cost and smaller mean queue lengths, with action-time fractions showing more serving and restrained switching. Its simplicity and robustness make ESL a practical default for real-time multi-robot scheduling systems.","short_abstract":"We study online task allocation for multi-robot, multi-queue systems with stochastic arrivals and switching delays. Time is slotted; each location can host at most one robot per slot; service consumes one slot; switching between locations incurs a one-slot travel delay; and arrivals are independent Bernoulli processes....","url_abs":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.25556","url_pdf":"https://arxiv.org/pdf/2509.25556v1","authors":"[\"Mohammad Merati\",\"David Castañón\"]","published":"2025-09-29T22:24:26Z","proceeding":"cs.RO","tasks":"[\"cs.RO\",\"eess.SY\",\"math.OC\"]","methods":"[]","has_code":false}