Scaling the Dynamic Approach to Path Planning and Control: Competition among Behavioral Constraints

The dynamic systems approach to robot path planning de nes a \dynamics" of robot behavior in which task constraints contribute independently to a nonlinear vector eld that governs robot actions. We address problems that arise in scaling this approach to handle complex behavioral requirements. We propose a dynamics that operates in the space of task constraints, determining the relative contribution of each constraint to the behavioral dynamics. Competition among task constraints is able to deal with problems that arise when combining constraint contributions, making it is possible to specify tasks that are more complex than simple navigation. To demonstrate the utility of this approach, we design a system of two agents to perform a cooperative navigation task. We show how competition among constraints enables agents make decisions regarding which behavior to execute in a given situation, resulting in the execution of sequences of behaviors that satisfy task requirements. We discuss the scalability of the competitive dynamics approach to the design of more complex autonomous systems. 1