An efficient scheme for monitoring sensory conditions in robot systems

An important use of sensing in robot systems is to initiate or terminate motions. The conditions for these actions are based on sensor data and thus called sensory conditions. The values of the sensor input may vary while the robot is moving or the environment is changing. Hence, the sensor data must be collected repetitively to support the updated evaluation of sensory conditions. In this paper, an efficient scheme for monitoring sensory conditions is presented. An auxiliary sensory processor is used to collect all sensor data (except the vision input) and monitor sensory conditions. Only the raw values of the sensor input will be checked to speed up the monitoring process. The threshold values of the raw data for matching sensory conditions are predetermined in the host computer and stored as a checking list in the sensory processor. The details of this scheme for different cases of sensory conditions are discussed. No floating point capability is needed for the sensory processor.