A Distributed Control System for the CMU Rover

Abstract

This paper describes a distributed software control structure developed describe a Distributed Control System designed for the Rover, and for the CMU Rover, an advanced mobile robot equipped with a variety present of one control configuration, which is being developed for obstacle-sensors. Expert modules are used to control the operation of the sensors avoidance tasks. and actuators, interpret sensory and feedback data, build an internal model of the robot's environment, devise strategies to accomplish proposed 2 Hardware tasks Structure and execute these strategies. Each expert module is composed of a master The CMU Rover Project is a continuation of research begun with the process and a slave process, where the master process controls the Stanford Cart [2.4], a minimal computer controlled mobile camera scheduling and working of the slave process. Communication among platform. I"hc Rover [1] is intended to support a variety of Al research in expert modules occurs asynchronously over a blackboard structure. the areas of perception (sensory data processing and understanding), Information specific to the execution of a given task is provided through control, a real-world modelling, problem-solving, planning and related control plan. The system is distributed over a network of processors. issues. Real- For this reason, the system is being designed along the following time operating system kernels local to each processor and an interprocess guidelines: message communication mechanism ensure transparency of the underlying network structure. The various parts of the system are presented in this • mechanical, sensor and controller flexibility; paper and future work to be performed is mentioned • enough onboard processing capabilities to enable it to function autonomously, but with connections to a remote 1