A Hybrid System of Hierarchical Planning of Behaviour Selection Networks for Mobile Robot Control

Abstract

An office delivery robot receives a large amount of sensory data and there is uncertainty in its action outcomes. The robot should not only accomplish its goals using environmental information, but also consider various exceptions simultaneously. In this paper, we propose a hybrid system using hierarchical planning of modular behaviour selection networks to generate autonomous behaviour in the office delivery robot. Behaviour selection networks, one of the well-known behaviour-based methods suitable for goal-oriented tasks, are made up of several smaller behaviour modules. Planning is attached to the construct and adjust sequences of the modules by considering the sub-goals, the priority in each task and the user feedback. This helps the robot to quickly react in dynamic situations as well as achieve global goals efficiently. The proposed system is verified with both the Webot simulator and a Khepera II robot that runs in a real office environment carrying out delivery tasks. Experimental results have shown that a robot can achieve goals and generate module sequences successfully even in unpredictable situations. Additionally, the proposed planning method reduced the elapsed time during tasks by 17.5% since it adjusts the behaviour module sequences more effectively.