Reactive hand-arm coordination for a humanoid robot using extended petri-nets

This paper provides a new approach for the temporal coordination of a humanoid robot, in particular the coordination of hand and arm movements. Our approach uses Petri-nets extended by callback and trigger functions to describe the identified features of coordinated movements. The Petri-net is not only used for modelling but also for the implementation - it describes and executes coordinated movements. It keeps the distinct control systems simple and manageable while still providing a broad variety of possible tasks. It furthermore allows the exchange of sensor information between independent control systems and thus allows the system to react on sensor feedback.