The Robotics Primer Workbook Developed by  USC, iRobot® and Microsoft® Robotics Studio

Behavior-Based Control

Contents 1 Purpose 2 Overview 3 Hardware 4 Exercise1 Obstacle avoidance 5 Exercise2 Wall-Following revisited 6 Exercise3 Flocking

Purpose

This section refers behaviors, behavior-based control (BBC) systems, and how behaviors can affect each other. Refer to Chapters 15-18 of "The Robotics Primer".

Overview

Behavior-based robotics may be a different way of thinking about the problems roboticists face, but it can be a simpler way to solve some problems. Behavior based control is related to reactive control. Both are inspired by biological systems. BBC, however, grew out of a need to make systems that were more flexible than reactive systems while being faster than deliberative systems, but without the complex interaction among components needed for reactive control. Behaviors are used together to create behavior coordination. In this secetion, we will explore the construction of behaviors, arbitration between behaviors, and emergent behavior that can occur with the combination of behaviors.

Hardware

Exercise	Command Module	Gumstix	Misc
Exercise 1	Yes	Yes	N/A
Exercise 2	Yes	Yes	N/A
Exercise 3	No	Yes	N/A

Exercise1 Obstacle avoidance

In this exercise, we will re-do a similar exercise from the "Reactive Control" chapter, but this time, in a behavior-based fashion. Design a behavior-based controller that moves a robot to a goal point while avoiding obstacles. Behavior:Exercise1-Obstacle Avoidance

Exercise2 Wall-Following revisited

As in the above exercise, you will re-do an exercise from the "Reactive Control" chapter. Implement a collection of behaviors whose combined effect will result in a wall following robot. Behavior:Exercise2-Wall Following

Exercise3 Flocking

Implement flocking behavior for a swarm of robots. Using a collection of simple rules, create a set of behaviors that make a swarm of robots to exhibit flocking behavior. Behavior:Exercise3-Flocking