Towards an embodied system-level architecture for mobile robots

In robotics, a system architecture refers to the manner in which a robot's control components (including sensors, actuators, microcontrollers and computers) are connected and how information flows between them. This paper describes the development of a two-tiered hybrid architecture which draws close inspiration from concepts in both embodied artificial intelligence as well as social intelligence theory. The design requirements for the architecture are postulated and their inclusion justified. A prototype embodiment of the proposed architecture has been practically implemented on the “Robbie” robot and a detailed discussion of its implementation is presented. The low-level proprioceptive system is demonstrated by tracking the forward kinematics of the robot over time. Additionally, the speed with which sensor readings are transferred from low-level to high-level control components is quantified to convey the scalability of the system.