Reactive control as a substrate for telerobotic systems

The author describes a schema-based reactive control system that allows teleoperators to direct a mobile platform without undue concern for local obstacle avoidance. By using an analog of the potential field methodology repulsive forces are constructed around nearby obstacles allowing the robot to avoid them and enabling the telerobot operator to concentrate on the more global aspects of the mission. The structure of this paradigm enables real-time computation. These same principles are extendible to manipulator operations as well. Robot simulations/experiments demonstrate the concepts described