Prioritized constraints in the design of a situated robot

This thesis investigates whether the extended Constraint-Based Agent (CBA) framework with prioritized constraints, using the Constraint Nets in Java (CNJ) tool, is an effective methodology for designing and building Situated Agents in the real world. As an illustrative case study of this design methodology, a situated robot called Ainia, that repeatedly finds, tracks, chases and kicks a soccer ball in the field has been first designed and simulated in CNJ. After modelling the controller, the body, and the environment as separate modules and creating an animation of the system under CNJ, the controller module of Ainia is used unchanged to control a physical robot. The body and environment modules are replaced by the physical robot plant and the external real world, respectively. The results of the study show that the behaviour of the real robot satisfies the constraint-based requirements specification while demanding no changes in the controller. Hence, this thesis provides evidence that the extended CBA approach is an effective framework for Situated Agent construction. It also supports the claim that CNJ is an effective tool for designing and building Situated Agents operating in the real world.Science, Faculty ofComputer Science, Department ofGraduat