A Client/Server Approach to Open-Architecture, Behavior-Based Robot Programming

Abstract

This paper describes our progress in the development of a behavior-based, stimulus-response robot control software architecture that is expressly designed to program and execute interactive tasks, including assembly, multi-robot collaborative manipulation, and exploration. The system has been designed to assure stability and safety while maintaining flexibility and achieving expert performance. The architecture incorporates a reactive controller as a behavior server, and applications are written as client programs that can operate either locally or across a network. This organization has been demonstrated to be sufficiently open to support teleoperation tasks as well as human-guided supervisory control and full autonomous functionality.