Design and Implementation Methodology for Autonomous Robot Control Systems

This paper describes a general design and implementation approach used for programming and controlling complex robotic systems such as remotely operated submersibles, autonomous submersibles, and robotic manipulator systems. A hierarchical approach to control system design is adopted. The hierarchical design is translated into a component-based software design. All real-time software components are rigorously unit-tested and can be reused in other control systems. The programming environment allows the design and evaluation of control systems that span several embedded processors. Graphical design tools are used for specifying component interconnections. The project intends to support the graphical methods of the process control industry’s IEC 1131-3 Programmable Controller Programming Standard for defining robotic control systems and robotic control tasks. The paper also discusses some project management advantages using these approaches as well as some ongoing development work.