CLARAty: Coupled Layer Architecture for Robotic Autonomy

Abstract

This report presents an overview of a newly developed robotics architecture for improving the modularity of system software while more tightly coupling the interaction of autonomy and controls within the system. To accomplish this, we have modified the conventional three-level robotics architecture with separate and distinct functional, executive, and planning capabilities, into a new two-layer design. This design features a tight coupling of the planner and executive in one Decision Layer, which interacts with a separate Functional Layer at all levels of system granularity. The Functional Layer is an interface to all system hardware and its capabilities. It has a number of specific characteristics. First and foremost it is an object-oriented hierarchy which captures granularity and abstraction of the system. Second, the state of all system parts is contained in the appropriate objects and obtained from them by query. This includes state variable values, object state machine status, resource usage, health monitoring, etc. Third, all objects have basic encoded functionality for themselves, accessible from within the Functional Layer, as well as the Decision Layer. Fourth, all objects may have local planners, such as those used for arm motion or driving. Fifth, objects have resource usage predictors, providing estimates of future resource usage to specified levels of fidelity, where high levels may require access to subordinate