An application for a distributed computer architecture-realtime data processing in an autonomous mobile robot

A description is given of a data-processing structure for real-time systems with sensory feedback and a distributed computer architecture that supports it. The computer system is implemented within an autonomous mobile robot and is based on a set of independent processing modules, each of which consists of a processing core, a transport unit, and a common memory between them. Communication between modules is done in two ways. For command transportation, a direct point-to-point connection is used and transport of raw and processed sensor data is done by broadcasting. Transportation is controlled by an adjustable timetable, which is maintained by the supervisor, who slows down the driving speed and adjusts the timetable if the module does not process the given task in time. This facility allows speed of the robot to be adapted to the current processing capacity and to the complexity of the environment