An advanced design support system for intelligent robots

To design intelligent robotic systems which are expected to execute various tasks dexterously in a complex and hazardous environment, it is necessary to provide flexible programming environments for designing intelligent functions of robots and the capability of realistic environmental simulation for evaluating the behaviour of robots in work space. This paper describes an advanced design support system for such an intelligent robots. The present design support system integrates knowledge engineering approach (object-oriented programming and production system) with 3-D graphics and an image processing technique (oct-tree method). It is emphasized that object-oriented approach plays a key role in the design of robotic systems. It is also discussed that the interactive graphic simulation and environmental information processing based on the oct-tree method are very effective for evaluation and verification of robot systems. The present design support system is applied to functional design of a robot system that works in a nuclear plant.