Coupled behaviors in the reactive control of cooperating mobile robots
Robert Ghanea‐Hercock, David Barnes · Advanced Robotics · 1995
A group of stimulus-response functions have been combined in a behavior-based reactive control architecture for groups of cooperating mobile robots. A successful object relocation task has been achieved with two coupled robots using the Behavior Synthesis Architecture. However, as task complexity increases preplanning the behavior parameters is increasingly difficult. A mechanism for on-line parameter adjustment is therefore necessary (although a learning process could be used, this often requires extensive processing ability on the robot). This paper outlines the system of Behavior Synthesis and a possible method of adaptively modifying the dynamic coupling between behaviors. The aim of this approach is to emulate the process of 'attention span' as displayed by most animals, in which current sensory input has a higher priority and this decreases the importance of behaviors not essential to the current situation.