Context Generator and Behavior Translator in a Multilayer Architecture for a Modular Development Process of Cyber-Physical Robot Systems

Robot systems are developed using various hardware and software components. In conventional design methodology, each hardware component and its software are strongly coupled such that it is not easy to replace or expand them separately. For the independent development and replacement of hardware and software components, this paper proposes a novel robot development methodology based on the abstractions of software and hardware components in a multilayer architecture for cyber-physical robot systems which conjoin computational and physical resources. We introduce a context generator and a behavior translator for the abstractions in the multilayer architecture. The context generator converts sensory value data into contexts using context scripts. The behavior translator converts a behavior, selected by a software agent that is a computer program deciding an action of a robot, into a sequence of actuator commands for robots using behavior scripts. These together enable two levels of abstraction in which software and hardware components can be developed independently of each other. As a result, software agents can work flawlessly even if hardware components are replaced and vice versa. The effectiveness and applicability of the proposed methodology are demonstrated through experiments, and the related applications are provided.