Unstructured Facility Navigation by Applying the NIST 4D/RCS Architecture

Abstract

The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Intelligent Systems Division (ISD) is working with the material handling industry, specifically on automated guided vehicles, to develop next generation vehicles. ISD is also a participant in the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) Learning Applied to Ground Robots (LAGR) Project embedding learning algorithms into the modules that make up the Four Dimensional/Real-Time Control System (4D/RCS). 4D/RCS is the standard reference model architecture which ISD has applied to control many intelligent systems. Technology from LAGR is being transferred to the material handling industry through the NIST Industrial Autonomous Vehicles Project. This paper describes the 4D/RCS structure and control applied to LAGR and the transfer of this technology through a demonstration to the automated guided vehicles industry.