A distributed blackboards methodology for designing robotic control softwares

A methodology for designing global software architectures for robotic control from user to physical device interface is presented. This methodology is based on an analysis of the problem of control. This control is viewed as a distribution blackboards decomposition. In this decomposition three blackboards represent three aspects of intelligent control: real world modeling, planning, and distributed control. Each module is based on a blackboard architecture specialized for each of the aspects of control: a graphical blackboard for interaction, a classical one for reasoning, and a parallel real-time one for control. A mobile robotics application specified with this methodology is described. The adaptation of the decomposition to the same type of application in telerobotics and computer music is also considered