A behaviour synthesis architecture for co-operant mobile robot control

This paper describes a powerful, sensor-driven, behavioural control architecture, which has been specifically designed to facilitate co-operative behaviour in multi-robot systems. The architecture, the behaviour synthesis architecture (BSA), has been implemented both in simulation and on two real mobile robots which co-operatively relocate a pallet from one location to another, avoiding obstacles en route. Simulation results have demonstrated co-operative behaviour between up to four mobile robots. This paper describes BSA, its simulation and its implementation on the two mobile robots. Finally, the results obtained from both the simulation studies and the real robot experiments are discussed.