If we had more time, we could do the following:
1) We could create a wrapper node that acts as an intermediary between the robot and our code. Instead of each module needing to account for the run_on_robot flag, this node could put the information into a standardized format regardless of if the robot is real or in simulation. This node could be run on the robot allowing the use of the Interbotix python package.
2) We could add redundancy to the arm controller module. If both the drive controller and the occupancy grid are accurate, the arm controller can simply move the arm to the target point P to grab or release blocks. However, if one or both of the systems are not accurate, the arm controller would fail. Thus, we can add redundancy by using blob detection directly on the camera feed in addition to the occupancy grid to locate the block and tell the arm where to go in robot-space, bypassing the need for highly-accurate driving and occupancy detection.
3) We could integrate our controller onto the multi-robot simulation. By having multiple robots running in parallel, we can test for unaddressed edgecases in our collaborative method.
4) Once the previous steps are implemented, we could run physical tests using two Locobots at once, to test for sim-to-real errors in our collaboration.
5) Incorporate machine learning techniques to optimize the robot's strategy during gameplay.
This task could be extended into a human-robot experiment by making the Locobot collaborate with a human instead. Our collaboration strategy would still be effective, because we mainly observe proactive task execution.
The project could be further developed to include more than two robots, which would require more complex coordination, but would also allow the completion of more significant tasks. Despite being relatively simple when compared to larger lifeforms ants are able to accomplish great feats through collaboration. We could take inspiration from ants and deploy many simple robots instead of creating single complicated machines.
In the real world, this project could be applied to disaster zones where communication is difficult or impossible. Like this task, the robots would work together to search for and rescue victims without digital communication.