From functional to implementational architectures in advanced robotic systems

Given that no single advanced robotic system is going to fulfil all the requirements of a multitude of applications, the implementation of an advanced robot varies from application to application. Therefore, in order to minimise the amount of development time (i.e. cost) for a given application, the degree of transfer of technology across applications needs to be maximised. One way to achieve this is by the adoption of a modular approach to system construction. A definition the functional modules and their interaction within a general advanced robotic system constitutes a functional architecture description. Such a definition describes the logical resources necessary to undertake the computations which constitute the system requirements. A functional architecture is outlined, and it is shown how it may be mapped to an implementational architecture