Becoming Increasingly Reliable

Autonomousmobile robots need to detect potential failures reliably and react appropriately. Dueto uncertainties about the robots and their environment,it is extremelydifficult to design reliable systemsfrom the start. Instead, weadvocatethe structured control methodology,in whichone starts with plans that work in nominalsituations, and then incrementallyadds reactive behaviors to handle previously unanticipated situations. Wehave developed the Task Control Architecture to facilitate this methodologyby enabling monitors and exception handlers to be added to existing hierarchical plans. This paper details the application of this methodologyto a walkingrover and an indoor office robot. In both cases, robot systems were produced that can autonomouslytraverse long distances in obstacle-filled environments.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1994
• Where: AIPS
• Authors: Reid G. Simmons
• Keywords: AIPS 1994, Artificial Intelligence, In, Robot, Structured Control Methodology