A flexible architecture for navigation control of a mobile robot

In order to meet new mission requirements or to adapt environmental changes, robots perform a task switch or role switch. When a robot is required to perform a specific task, which is beyond its skills, it might need to request other robots' help. In order to improve the flexibility, we use the concept of a software mobile agent to design an architecture called Virtual Operator MultiAgent System (VOMAS). In VOMAS, intelligent agents, called a virtual operator (VO) and a robot agent (RA), work together to control a robot to fulfill a specific task. Each task is represented by a VO and the RA handles reactive control. Based on this architecture, VOMAS can perform the dynamic task switch to handle missions, which are not initially given. Two case studies, a wheelchair and formation control, are introduced for explaining our approach and to show the feasibility and effectiveness of dynamic task switch. Furthermore, VOMAS can be treated as a telerobotic architecture, and the network-load test shows that VOMAS requires less network load than direct control.