A Behavior-Based Controller Architecture for Reactive Underwater Robots

Much robotic behavior has precise analogies in the behavior of animals. Animal behavior can often be categorized into recognizable acts with well defined releasers and terminators. Different patterns of behavior may share common acts. These acts may represent discrete components of behavior which are sequenced and assembled into more complex behavior. In lower invertebrates, such behavior can be evoked by stimulation of single neurons or sets of neurons or partitioned by lesions of the central nervous system. Thus there can be a correspondence between units of behavior and underlying neuronal components. The organizational principles of these components can form the basis for a conservative control architecture which may apply to a variety of robotic systems. In this manuscript, I apply examples of this approach to the design of software controllers for biologically-based underwater robots.

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