ROSPlan: Planning in the Robot Operating System (original) (raw)

PlanSys2: A Planning System Framework for ROS2

arXiv (Cornell University), 2021

Autonomous robots need to plan the tasks they carry out to fulfill their missions. The missions' increasing complexity does not let human designers anticipate all the possible situations, so traditional control systems based on state machines are not enough. This paper contains a description of the ROS2 Planning System (PlanSys2 in short), a framework for symbolic planning that incorporates novel approaches for execution on robots working in demanding environments. PlanSys2 aims to be the reference task planning framework in ROS2, the latest version of the de facto standard in robotics software development. Among its main features, it can be highlighted the optimized execution, based on Behavior Trees, of plans through a new actions auction protocol and its multi-robot planning capabilities. It already has a small but growing community of users and developers, and this document is a summary of the design and capabilities of this project.

Development and Experimental Tests of a ROS Multi-agent Structure for Autonomous Surface Vehicles

Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems, 2017

Robotic structures that couple autonomous surface vehicles and unmanned underwater vehicles in integrated systems with various levels of cooperation provide interesting solutions to the problem of developing efficient, versatile and cost effective tools for exploration, monitoring and exploitation of the underwater environment. In this paper we describe the development and preliminary field testing of an autonomous surface vehichle that can automatically track, deploy and recover a small remotely operated vehicle, which is guided from a shore-ground station. This goal is achieved by exploiting two-ways transmission of data and commands through the umbilical and a wireless link with a shore-ground station. In this way, pilots can experiment telepresence in the underwater environment, avoiding the need of expensive and logistically demanding manned supply vessel. The vehicle is a small aluminum hull boat, equipped with a steering outboard electric motor. A multi-agent system in the ROS framework is proposed for the robotic structure. The use of commercial-off-the-shelf components and the choice of a multi-agent ROS architecture are a mean to reduce costs and to assure performances, modularity and versatility. Field tests in both supervised and autonomous guidance mode have been performed in order to assess the basic functionalities of the system and their results are illustrated and discussed.

Unified robot task and motion planning with extended planner using ROS simulator

Journal of King Saud University - Computer and Information Sciences, 2021

This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.

Resource-coordinated hierarchical planning for real-time autonomous systems

1992

In recent years, mobile robots have been used to perform tasks unsuitable for humans, be they too dangerous or logistically difficult. Their use has allowed undertakings which would have otherwise been impossible or economically infeasible. Still, robot technology is quite limited. In particular, many of the more challenging robotic tasks require a person to actively control the robot and make the decisions necessary for completing the task. In a number of applications, the requirement for a person to be in control of the robot is prohibitive; these applications require rapid, flawless communication between the robot and the operator. Removal of the communications link would allow whole new fields of research and enterprise, particularly in underwater and space applications, where communication is technically difficult and of low quality. The capabilities required of an autonomous mobile robotic system include the ability to make and to execute plans. In order to execute plans, the system must make the decisions necessary to execute those plans, and it must determine when replanning is necessary. The planning problem is one that is often considered in the context of optimization theory. The solutions to the problem of planning in a real-time scenario and to the problem of executing those plans require further development. In this thesis, the theory underlying the real-time planning problem is discussed and developed in the context of a hierarchical optimization problem. A focus of this thesis research has been the development of the management functions that are required for the real-time coordination of the planning and plan execution performed at each level of a hierarchical planning system. A software architecture has been designed and implemented; the implementation includes the hierarchy of planners and the associated planning management functions. The architecture is applied in an autonomous underwater vehicle scenario. The resulting planning system is tested in a simulation wherein commands are issued to a control system which in turn drives a six-degree-of-freedom model of a small submersible. Models of sensors provide feedback information to the planning system, closing the loop. The main result of the research has been the formulation of an autonomous planning system architecture which is applicable to a variety of planning and decision-making problems. Further development of the algorithms employed in this embodiment of the planning system can improve the performance of the system when applied to any particular problem. It is the development of an architecture that integrates and manages a real-time hierarchical planning system, not the particular algorithms used in its embodiment, that is the major contribution of the thesis.

MERLIN2: MachinEd Ros 2 pLanINg

Software Impacts

Any service robot should be able to make decisions and schedule tasks to reach predefined goals such as opening a door or assisting users at home. However, these processes are not single short-term tasks anymore and it is required to set long-term skills for establishing a control architecture that allows robots to perform daily tasks. This paper presents MERLIN2, a hybrid cognitive architecture based on symbolic planning and state machine decision-making systems that allows performing robot behaviors. The architecture can run in any robot running ROS 2, the latest version of the Robot Operative System. MERLIN2 is available at https://github.com/MERLIN2-ARCH/merlin2.

A distributed architecture for enabling autonomous underwater Intervention Missions

2010 IEEE International Systems Conference, 2010

This work introduces the main aspects related with a new architecture defined for an ongoing research project named RAUVI (i.e. Reconfigurable AUV for Intervention Missions). Two initially independent architectures for the underwater vehicle and the robotic arm have been combined into a new schema that allows for reactive and deliberative behaviours on both subsystems. Reactive actions are performed through a low-level control layer in communication with the robot hardware via an abstraction interface. On the other hand, the intervention mission is supervised at a high-level by a Mission Control System (MCS), implemented using the Petri net formalism. Both, the arm and vehicle perception and control modules communicate with the MCS by means of actions and events. They also share a centralized database where some sensor data is stored. The proposed architecture allows for the supervised execution of intervention missions requiring a tight coordination between the vehicle and the manipulator.

A behavior-based architecture for autonomous underwater exploration

Information Sciences - ISCI, 2002

We present a system for behavior-based control of an autonomous underwater vehicle for the purpose of inspection of coral reefs, a task currently performed by divers holding a video camera while following a rope. Using sonar and vision-based approaches, behaviors have been developed for guiding the robot along its intended course, for maintaining a constant height above the sea floor, and for avoiding obstacles. A task-level controller selects which behaviors should be active according to user-defined plans and in response to system failures. Behavior arbitration has been implemented using both fuzzy logic and utility fusion. Initial experiments have been conducted in a natural coastal inlet, and the system is to be soon demonstrated in the coral reef environment.

A Constraint-Based Control Architecture for Acting and Reasoning in Autonomous Robots

1995

In this paper we will address several architectural decisions in defining a software control architecture for mobile robots. Our system is a collection of control primitives that enables the development of simulations or control algorithms for autonomous agents. Its computational capabilities are determined by an object-oriented constraint-based architecture. We discuss how high level knowledge, skills, goal-driven and reactive behavior are integrated within such an architecture. Our goal is to design a framework that enables the merging of classic and reactive implementation ideas. We will show, that each such type of control can be implemented in our system. The issues of task decomposition and granularity are given special attention, as they lie at the basis of our architecture. We discuss two learning methods supported by our system. The first is based on environment exploration, while the second copes with skill acquisition. Our robot, CYCLOPS , is a LEGO mini-robot based on th...

Mission specification in underwater robotics

2010

Abstract This paper describes the utilization of software design patterns and plan-based mission specification in the definition of AUVs missions. Within this approach, a mission is described in terms of a set of task-oriented plans in order to simplify mission definition and favor reutilization of some aspects of a mission. Each plan organizes how and when basic tasks like measurement sampling, navigation or communication are to be carried out.