PRS: a high level supervision and control language for autonomous mobile robots

In this paper we discuss Procedural Reasoning Sys tem PRS as a high level Control and Supervision lan guage adapted to autonomous robots to represent and execute procedures scripts and plans in dynamic envi ronments We discuss the main reasons why PRS is well suited for this type of application The semantics of its plan procedure representation which is important for plan execution and goal re nement Its ability to construct and act on partial rather than complete plans Its ability to pursue goal directed tasks while at the same time being responsive to changing patterns of events in bounded time Its facilities for managing multiple tasks in real time Its default mechanisms for handling stringent real time demands of its environ ment and Its meta level or re ective reasoning capabilities C PRS has been used to implement an em bedded control and supervision system for autonomous mobile robots in two di erent experimentations that we brie y present Eden and Martha We conclude with some suggestions to further develop C PRS and with a short review of related work