ROBOS: world modelling through an object system

A self-contained object system for robotic applications is developed and implemented. The main feature of the system, named ROBOS (robotic object system), is its object-oriented configuration and its suitability for high level interfaces. The robotic environment is integrated to this object system by means of object lists together with a message handling mechanism. The term object is not confined to physical objects; a task, a motion trajectory or a sensor response are all treated as objects. The task objects are organized in a hierarchical way and the task sequences are represented by means of a new strategy, named constructive task representation. The system maintains a uniform strategy for object definition, irrespective of the type of the item to be defined. An object is referred by a name and it is stored in the system together with the related structures. The message handling module is the main tool for reasoning the environment and its objects. The user interface and interaction with application programs are also achieved by the message handler. The system is provided with a built-in planner to sequence the task objects. The whole system is implemented in a LISP environment on an IBM 3090 computer.<>