Programming in the architecture for agile assembly

Abstract

The goal of the architecture for agile assembly (AAA) is to enable rapid deployment and reconfiguration of automated assembly systems through the use of cooperating, modular, robust, robotic agents. AAA agent programs must be completely distributed and specify cooperative precision behavior in a structured, well known environment. Thus, the structure of agent programs is carefully designed to allow packaging of all the information necessary for coordinated execution when downloaded to a physical agent. To make the specification and execution of the potentially complex and fragile cooperative behaviors robust, our programs define ordered sets of control strategies and allow a low level real-time hybrid control system to sequence the strategies rather than burdening the agent program with the management of this critical detail. This novel approach to programming automation systems has been tested both in simulation and on prototype hardware.