A multitasking behavioral control system for the Robotic All Terrain Lunar Exploration Rover (RATLER)

An alternative methodology for designing an autonomous navigation and control system is discussed. This generalized hybrid system is based on a less sequential and less anthropomorphic approach than that used in the more traditional artificial intelligence (AI) technique. The architecture is designed to allow both synchronous and asynchronous operations between various behavior modules. This is accomplished by intertask communications channels which implement each behavior module and each interconnection node as a stand-alone task. The proposed design architecture allows for construction of hybrid systems which employ both subsumption and traditional AI techniques as well as providing for a teleoperator's interface. Implementation of the architecture is planned for the prototype Robotic All Terrain Lunar Explorer Rover (RATLER) which is described briefly

Flora robotica -- An Architectural System Combining Living Natural Plants and Distributed Robots

Key to our project flora robotica is the idea of creating a bio-hybrid system of tightly coupled natural plants and distributed robots to grow architectural artifacts and spaces. Our motivation with this ground research project is to lay a principled foundation towards the design and implementation of living architectural systems that provide functionalities beyond those of orthodox building practice, such as self-repair, material accumulation and self-organization. Plants and robots work together to create a living organism that is inhabited by human beings. User-defined design objectives help to steer the directional growth of the plants, but also the system's interactions with its inhabitants determine locations where growth is prohibited or desired (e.g., partitions, windows, occupiable space). We report our plant species selection process and aspects of living architecture. A leitmotif of our project is the rich concept of braiding: braids are produced by robots from continuous material and serve as both scaffolds and initial architectural artifacts before plants take over and grow the desired architecture. We use light and hormones as attraction stimuli and far-red light as repelling stimulus to influence the plants. Applied sensors range from simple proximity sensing to detect the presence of plants to sophisticated sensing technology, such as electrophysiology and measurements of sap flow. We conclude by discussing our anticipated final demonstrator that integrates key features of flora robotica, such as the continuous growth process of architectural artifacts and self-repair of living architecture.Comment: 16 pages, 12 figure

Safety verification of a fault tolerant reconfigurable autonomous goal-based robotic control system

Fault tolerance and safety verification of control systems are essential for the success of autonomous robotic systems. A control architecture called Mission Data System (MDS), developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, takes a goal-based control approach. In this paper, a method for converting goal network control programs into linear hybrid systems is developed. The linear hybrid system can then be verified for safety in the presence of failures using existing symbolic model checkers. An example task is simulated in MDS and successfully verified using HyTech, a symbolic model checking software for linear hybrid systems

CORBYS cognitive control architecture for robotic follower

In this paper the novel generic cognitive robot control architecture CORBYS is presented. The objective of the CORBYS architecture is the integration of high-level cognitive modules to support robot functioning in dynamic environments including interacting with humans. This paper presents the preliminary integration of the CORBYS architecture to support a robotic follower. Experimental results on high-level empowerment-based trajectory planning have demonstrated the effectiveness of ROS-based communication between distributed modules developed in a multi-site research environment as typical for distributed collaborative projects such as CORBYS

IMPLEMENTATION OF A LOCALIZATION-ORIENTED HRI FOR WALKING ROBOTS IN THE ROBOCUP ENVIRONMENT

This paper presents the design and implementation of a human–robot interface capable of evaluating robot localization performance and maintaining full control of robot behaviors in the RoboCup domain. The system consists of legged robots, behavior modules, an overhead visual tracking system, and a graphic user interface. A human–robot communication framework is designed for executing cooperative and competitive processing tasks between users and robots by using object oriented and modularized software architecture, operability, and functionality. Some experimental results are presented to show the performance of the proposed system based on simulated and real-time information. </jats:p