System intelligence requires distributed learning

This work addresses the requirements and design for the realization of intelligent mobile robot teams. Requirements on system intelligence are addressed from the standpoint of hardware and software. It is shown that ´intelligence´ in such systems must be distributed in nature. A hierarchical architecture is presented that allows for the implementation of distributed learning. Trends in the hardware-software codesign and hardware reconfiguration are utilized to develop a design that is fault-tolerant and has higher reliability under all operating conditions.