| Behavior-based robotic systems are becoming both more prevalent and more competent. However, operators lacking programming skills are still forced to use canned configurations hand-crafted by experienced roboticists. This inability of ordinary people to specify tasks for robots is inhibiting the spread of robots into everyday life. Even expert roboticists are unable to share solutions in executable forms since there is no commonality of configuration descriptions. Further, a configuration commonly requires significant rework before it can be deployed on a different robot, even one with similar capabilities. The research documented in this dissertation attacks this problem from three fronts.; First, the foundational Societal Agent theory is developed to describe how agents form abstract structures at all levels in a recursive fashion. It provides a uniform view of agents, no matter what their physical embodiment. Agents are treated consistently across the spectrum, from a primitive motor behavior to a configuration coordinating large groups of robots. The recursive nature of the agent construction facilitates information hiding and the creation of high-level primitives.; Secondly, the MissionLab toolset is developed which supports the graphical construction of architecture- and robot-independent configurations. This independence allows users to directly transfer designs to be bound to the specific robots at the recipient's site. The assemblage construction supports the recursive construction of new coherent behaviors from coordinated groups of other behaviors. This allows users to build libraries of increasingly high-level primitives which are directly tailored to their needs. MissionLab support for the graphical construction of state-transition diagrams allows use of temporal sequencing to partition a mission into discrete operating states, with assemblages implementing each state. Support for multiple code generators (currently existing for AuRA and SAUSAGES) ensures that a wide variety of robots can be supported.; Finally, specific usability criteria for toolsets such as MissionLab are established. Three usability studies are defined to allow experimental establishment of values for these criteria. The results of carrying out these studies using the MissionLab toolset are presented, confirming its benefits over conventional techniques. |
