MARC: A multiagent robot control system

✍ Scribed by Nobuyasu Osato

• Book ID: 104591604
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1993
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 902 KB
• Volume: 24
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0882-1666
• DOI: 10.1002/scj.4690240905

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

A system based on multiagents is proposed as an information processing model for robot programming. This model uses object‐oriented representation in which physical entities are described as logical objects. An agent is an active and independent logical entity which can control objects. Agents work cooperatively and concurrently, communicating with each other to perform the task assigned to the robot. An agent starts a new job or changes its behavior when a specific event occurs or when it receives a message from another agent. This multiagent system provides robot programmers with a useful mental model for dividing the task of a robot into several segments and distributing them to several personified processes which control subtasks.

This paper presents an overview of an experimental system used for multiagent robot programming and describes its implementation on a Lisp machine which supports multiprogramming and object‐oriented programming. The Tower of Hanoi task is used to test the system. It demonstrates that the multiagent system, using function‐based and behavior‐based agents, provides a high‐level modular programming environment for robot control.