Abstract
The U.S. Army Laboratory Command, as part of the Department of Defense Robotics Testbed Program, is developing a testbed for cooperative, real-time control of unmanned land vehicles. The program entails the development and integration of many elements which allow the vehicles to perform both autonomous and teleoperated functions. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is supporting this program by developing the vehicle control system using the Real-time Control System (RCS) architecture. RCS is a hierarchical, sensory-based control system, initially developed for the control of industrial robots and automated manufacturing systems. NIST is developing the portions of RCS that control all vehicle mobility functions, coordinate the operations of the other subsystems on the vehicle, and communicate between the vehicle and the remote operator control station. This paper reviews the overall control system architecture, the design and implementation of the mobility and communication functions, and results from recent testing.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Albus, J.S., Barbera, A.J., and Nagel, R.N., 1981, Theory and practice of hierarchical control, Proc. 23th IEEE Computer Society International Conference, Washington, DC.
Barbera, A.J., Fitzgerald, M.L., Albus, J.S., and Haynes, L.S., 1984, RCS: The NBS real-time control system, Proc. Robots 8 Conference and Exposition, Volume 2-Future Considerations, Detroit, MI.
AlbusJ.S., McCainH.G., and LumiaR., 1989, NASA/NBS standard reference model for telerobot control system architecture (NASREM), NIST Technical Note 1235, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD (supersedes NBS Technical Note 1235, July 1987).
Szabo, S., Scott, H.A., Kilmer, R.D., 1988, Control system architecture for the TEAM program, Proc. 2nd International Symposium on Robotics and Manufacturing Research, Education and Applications, Albuquerque, NM.
Szabo, S., Scott, H.A., Murphy, K.N., and Legowik, S.A., 1990, Control system architecture for a remotevely operated unmanned land vehicle, Proc. 5th IEEE International Sympsoium on Intelligent Control, Philadelphia, PA.
David, P., Balakirsky, S., and Hillis, D., 1990, A real-time, automatic target acquisition system, Proc. AUVS-90, Dayton, OH.
Omead, A., 1990, Integrated mobile robot control, MS Thesis, Carnegie Mellon University.
Herman, M., Chaconas, K., Nashman, M., and Hong, T., 1988, Low data rate remote vehicle driving, Proc. 3rd IEEE International Symposium on Intelligent Control, Arlington, VA.
Kraetz, W.F., Application of robotic convoy technology to combate training centers-phase I, Report Number 7-90-3, Honeywell Defense Systems Group, Edina, MN.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This work is funded by the U.S. Army Laboratory Command. This paper was prepared by U.S. Government employees and is not subject to copyright. Equipment listings do not imply a recommendation by NIST.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Szabo, S., Scott, H.A., Murphy, K.N. et al. High-level mobility controller for a remotely operated unmanned land vehicle. Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems 5, 63–77 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00357131
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00357131