A petri net on-line controller for the coordination of multiple mobile robots

• Main Author: Hwang, Faustina, 1975-
• Other Authors: Memorial University of Newfoundland. Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2000
• Subjects: Robots > Control systems; Petri nets; Newfoundland studies; University of Newfoundland
• Online Access: http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/ref/collection/theses3/id/148554

Thesis (M.Eng.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2000. Engineering and Applied Science Bibliography: leaves 74-79. In applications such as mining, space exploration, and toxic waste cleanup, mobile robots are often required to move within a common environment and to share resources. This introduces the need for a means of coordinating their behaviours. Also, due to the unpredictable nature of the worksite, there is a need to accommodate changes in a dynamic environment. -- A general framework for group robotics was developed in response to this need. The framework includes a discrete event controller for on-line control and runtime monitoring, the focus of the current research. -- A Petri net based discrete event formalism has been investigated as a basis for the development of an on-line controller, ftom a high-level task description, a set of rules have been used to automatically generate a Petri net structure that provides coordinated behaviour. The Petri net can then be executed to send instructions to robots and to incorporate feedback from the robots at runtime. This on-line controller has been used to control mobile robots in a proof-of-concept demonstration. In a laboratory setting, the Petri net controller was able to coordinate the behaviour of two robots in marker-based navigation tasks. -- Although the work completed to date has provided promising results, many research challenges remain. Some suggestions for future work are presented.