Abstract

Abstract
This paper describes the main design options of the PO-ROBOT project. The PO-ROBOT project consists in the design and the implementation of the Vehicle and Mission Management Systems of a mobile platform for autonomous transportation, surveillance and inspection in structured and semi-structured industrial environments. This project is funded by the NATO Programme Science for Stability and the Institute for Systems and Robotics. The Vehicle and Mission Management Systems are based in a hierarchical control structure organized linguistically permitting the parallel execution of tasks in real-time. This architecture is composed by the following three levels structured according to the IPDI (Increasing Precision with Decreasing Intelligence) Principle: Organization, Coordination and Functional Layer.

Abstract

Abstract
In this paper we propose a blackboard approach to the coordination stage of a practical Mission Management System which is composed of three hierarchic levels: The organization level takes place off-line and produces a coherent set of subplanes permitting to achieve the mission goals in a desirable fashion. The resulting plan will be considered as a reference basis for future actions once the mission has started. As the mission develops, a blackboard based coordinating structure (in the intermediate hierarchic level) will adopt the adequate mission achievement and safety oriented behaviors as a response to continuously monitored mission state and detected internal and external events. The lowest level of the hierarchy consists in the execution units which perform the required behaviors.

Abstract

Abstract