Symbolic feature-based representation and planning for an agent based robot controller

A prototype system has been developed to input 3-D computer-aided-design (CAD) data to automatically generate and implement robot trajectories for such application as waterjet cutting, surface finishing and polishing. The system can drive various robot configurations and handle contingencies such as collisions and singularities. The system provides a framework for integration of high-level reasoning, real-time path and trajectory planning, and various levels of feedback based on contingency detection algorithms or sensor data. Although initial CAD data have been in the form of IGES geometric entities, a higher-level CAD description based on manufacturing features which incorporates both geometric and process information is being developed. This feature-based CAD representation provides a direct interface between the CAD design data and the planning system for robot control. An agent actor paradigm is proposed as the representation for software/hardware system specifications and associated software and hardware modules