A Behavior-Based Arm Controller

Abstract

In this paper we describe a working, implemented controller for a real, physical mobile robot arm. The controller is composed of a collection of 15 independent behaviors which run, in real time, on a set of 8 loosely coupled on-board 8-bit microprocessors. We describe how these behaviors cooperate to actually seek out and retrieve objects using local sensory data. We also discuss the methodology used to decompose this collection task and the types of spatial representation and reasoning used by the system.