Situation based control architectures for an AUV

This paper reviews the limitations of the blackboard concept as a paradigm for AUV control system design and proposes a new concept based upon "situations." The high level requirements for a AUV control system are summarized and shown to demand a deviation from the blackboard concepts. The "situation" based architecture concept is introduced along with an overview of several of the major system components associated with such an architecture. Directed point to point message communication within a structured protocol is proposed for the structuring of reliable, effective AUV control systems which include a large number of cooperating knowledge based systems physically distributed over separate processors. Finally, a description of a currently operating prototype AUV control system based on this architecture is provided.