Reactive Robots in the Service of Production Management

In this paper, we advocate the use of reactive robots in industrial process control and production management. It is explained why reactive robots are well-suited to modern industrial applications that necessitate a high degree of autonomy and reactivity to unforeseen events and an illustrative example is studied in depth. A reactive robot whose role is to regulate the demands of a set of service units for tool use is described and different behavioral models for it studied and compared. Extensive simulation studies have revealed that a behavioral model relying on individual independent motivations of the robot is sufficient for it to exhibit the “optimal” behavior in this case. The process is modeled as a dynamical system that tends by itself to a steady state and that is perturbed by the robot. In turn, the robot’s motivations have a steady state of their own which is contradictory with the process’ steady state and hence is perturbed by its presence. As a consequence, the r...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 1998
• Where: JIRS
• Authors: Elpida Tzafestas
• Keywords: JIRS 1998, Reactive Robot, Robot, Steady State