<title>Controlling autonomous loading manipulator with planning-executing-monitoring cycles</title>

Abstract

Robots operating in unstructured environments require continuous utilization of sensors and intelligence for adapting to changing situations. In this paper a control method to achieve this goal is described and preliminary experiments are discussed. The control scheme is based on a hierarchically organized set of planning-executing-monitoring (PEM) cycles. Every PEM cycle is a goal-oriented module, which consists of three generic activities -- planning, executing, and monitoring -- and a separate meta control mechanism, which takes care of the control of generic activities inside a PEM cycle. We present our design experiments beginning from the development of a PEM-based logical model for an autonomous machine, and continue to the development of an implementation model for a loading manipulator control system. The laboratory implementations in two industrial robot environments are also described as well as plans for PEM-control implementation for a heavy-duty manipulator designed for loading paper rolls in harbor sites.