Designing autonomous robot missions with performance guarantees

Abstract

Abstract-This paper describes the need and methods required to construct an integrated software verification and mission specification system for use in robotic missions intended for counter-weapons of mass destruction (c-WMD) operations, as part of a 3-year effort for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. The overall system architecture is described. The principal tool for verification is a process algebra, PARS, based on port automata theory. PARS is introduced, emphasizing its ability to represent probabilistic programs and uncertain and dynamic environments, followed by the analysis of mission properties for an example robotic mission.

Getting it right the first time: Robot mission guarantees in the presence of uncertainty

“…In [15] we leverage a property of behavior-based systems to reduce the complexity of this problem. We present an algorithm, SysGen that matches the recurrent structure in the controller and environment processes to generate a process network that is a behavioral system period.…”

“…In [15] we introduce a process algebra (PA) approach to representing robot programs and environment models. The advantage of PA is that it can be used to determine how a process transforms its inputs to produce outputs without reference to states.…”

“…The process of matching the system and goal networks [15] identifies a subset of the flow-variables, G ⊆ R, and the values to be associated with them …”

“…In [15], we show how this goal is specified and matched with the SYS SYS SYS SYS network to determine what variables to inspect during filtering. The termination condition for filter is shown in eq.…”

“…The SysGen algorithm [15] identifies periodic behavior in a set of concurrent, connected processes that represent a behaviorbased robot program and its environment. The output of SysGen is a set of recurrent parameter flow functions.…”