Query Processing for Probabilistic State Diagrams Describing Multiple Robot Navigation in an Indoor Environment
Bogdan Czejdo, Sambit Bhattacharya, Erik M. Ferragut · OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information) · 2012
This paper addresses the problems in the area of robot navigation in an indoor environment [1, 2]. We assume that the robot not only responds directly to the environment [3, 4] but also to actions of other robots [5]. State diagrams [6, 7, 8] have been previously used to describe the robot behavior [9]. Typically, the appropriate software is developed manually based on such models. To accelerate the development process we have created a new tool with a simple graphical interface for the cooperative design of state diagrams and automatic code generation (GISAC) [10]. Such an interface can be very useful for the rapid modification of robot reactive behavior since it allows the developers to incrementally modify the graphical design and the generated code in response to changing requirements [10]. In this paper we describe the graphical interface for design of multilevel probabilistic state diagrams, integration of state diagrams into a combined diagram, and automatic code generation (GISAC 2). The probabilistic state diagrams allowed us to model more advanced cooperation between autonomous robots and also to ensure the correctness of combined multiple robot behavior. When modifications of a robot behavior are required, the checking of robot cooperation can be crucial and “what if” analysis performed. In our studies we addressed the following research questions: (1) how to design multi-level state diagrams to support probabilistic behavior of robots, (2) how to combine individual robots’ diagrams to describe a complete system, (3) how to use techniques such as state abstraction and transition abstraction to create, and process probabilistic state International Journal of Digital Information and Wireless Communications (IJDIWC) 1(2): 516-535 The Society of Digital Information and Wireless Communications, 2011(ISSN 2225-658X)