Page 172 - Introduction to AI Robotics

Designing a Reactive

5 Implementation

Chapter objectives:

Use schema theory to design and program behaviors using object-oriented
programming principles.
Design a complete behavioral system, including coordinating and con-
trolling multiple concurrent behaviors.
For a given behavioral system, draw a behavioral table specifying the re-
leasers, perceptual schemas, and motor schemas for each behavior.
Describe the two methods for assembling and coordinating primitive be-
haviors within an abstract behavior: finite state automata and scripts.Be able
to represent a sequence of behaviors with a state diagram or with a pseudo-
code script.

5.1 Overview

By this point, the sheer simplicity and elegance of reactive behaviors tend
to incite people to start designing and implementing their own robots. Kits
such as Lego Mindstorms and the Rug Warrior permit the rapid coupling
of sensors and actuators, enabling users to build reactive behaviors. How-
ever, the new issues are how to program more intelligence into the software
and how to exploit better sensors than come with kits. Unfortunately, good
intentions in robot programming are often frustrated by two deficits. First,
designing behaviors tends to be an art, not a science. Novice roboticists often
are uncertain as to how to even start the design process, much less how to
know when they’ve got a reasonable system. The second deficit is more sub-
tle. Once the designer has a few well-designed and tested behaviors, how