Asynchronous control of orientation and displacement in a robot vehicle

The design of a general-purpose vehicle controller is presented. The controller organization is presented as a three-layer structure. The top layer is an interpreter which assures a control protocol based on asynchronous commands and independent control of orientation and forward displacement. The middle layer is control loop which maintains an estimate of the vehicle´s position and orientation, as well as their uncertainties. This control loop generates commands for vehicle displacements in terms of a `virtual vehicle´. The bottom layer is a translator between the `virtual vehicle´ and the physical vehicle on which the controller is implemented