Generating Interactive Robot Behavior: A Mathematical Approach

Abstract

This paper describes a generalized mathematical approach to generate and organize robot behavior. For the example of a simulated robot which can perform a number of elementary behaviors we demonstrate how the internal behavioral state of the system can be influenced by external inputs. The inputs consist of keyword command strings given by an operator and of depth information determined by the simulation environment. The robot's behavioral state is defined by the activity pattern of the set of elementary behaviors and by the values of the continuous variables that control these elementary behaviors. Sensor information acts on the system by specifying stable states for the dynamics. Behavioral stability is guaranteed by a number of mathematically well defined design principles which must be obeyed when designing behavior generating systems following our approach. In this paper we describe the characteristics of this approach before we present the simulation of a robo...