r/robotics • u/edurakhan • 12h ago

Discussion & Curiosity What happens when two robots disagree?

One robot is cleaning the kitchen. Another needs to get in there to cook dinner. Both are doing what you asked, but now one has to wait. Who decides?

I don’t want to be settling arguments between appliances 😄 If I have to constantly coordinate them, I’ve just given myself a new job.

I’d rather have one home “brain” that knows my priorities and manages the devices accordingly. I tell it we’re usually home by 6 and want dinner ready. It figures out when to clean, when to cook, and what needs to change if something runs late.

That brain wouldn’t need a body, and it could coordinate other home systems too. But I’d decide how much freedom it gets, when it needs to ask me, and which systems stay separate. Maybe I want my alarm system or cameras completely outside its control.

Personally, I’d want it running locally, with remote access when I’m away. And it should work with different brands. Buying one robot shouldn’t lock me into that manufacturer for everything else.

How would you handle this: one home brain coordinating everything, or robots negotiating with each other? And when they can’t agree, does the problem just come back to us?

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u/Fragrant_Leading1852 12h ago

i think what you want is a smart house

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u/Fast-Satisfaction482 12h ago

This is basically the standard multi tasking with finite resources problem. Ideally you would do it just like you proposed. Some strategic planning to reduce conflicts and then some autonomous deconfliction functions. Ideally with deadlock detection.

I guess if the robots have powerful models doing high level planning, the can just talk to each other to resolve conflicts. 

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u/Own_Satisfaction2736 9h ago

The two ais piloting each robot will have a debate and determine a solution I'm sure. Same as if two people were hired to do the same task but better

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u/Parking-Strain-1548 8h ago

I’m interviewing for a place working on this actually. You basically need scheduling, ranking, context updates before/after/during task and some orchestration. This assumes the current LLM agent stack.

Research problem as of now.