N 89 - 2 6 5 8 6 On the Development of a Reactive Sensor - Based Robotic System

Flexible robotic systems for the space applications need to use local information to guide their action in uncertain environments where the state of the environment and even the goals may change. They have to be tolerant of unexpected events and robust enough to carry their task to completion. Tactical goals should be modified while maintaining strategic goals. Furthermore, reactive robotic systems need to have a broader view of their environments than sensory-based systems. We offer an architecture and a theory of representation extending the basic cycles of action and perception. This scheme allows for dynamic description of the environment and determining purposive and timely action. We are exploring applications of our scheme for assembly and repair tasks using a Universal Machine Intelligence RTX robot, but the ideas are extendable to other domains. This paper describes the nature of reactivity for sensor-based robotic systems and implementation issues we have encountered in developing a prototype.