| Robustness and simplicity are of major interest to autonomous robotics. One of the major problems in creating an autonomous robot is making the robot architecture flexible and robust, so that the robot can adapt easily to a wide range of environments. The Emotion Based Subsumption Architecture ( EBSA) is introduced in order to solve some of the afore mentioned problems. EBSA builds on concepts of Brooks' Architecture---mainly subsumption approach. This architecture has to offer high reactivity, as well as simplicity of implementation. Other foundations for EBSA are in animal biology, especially with issues dealing with primitive animals' motivational conflict between different needs. Similarly to primitive animals, a robot can act according to the current emotion which is dictated by the current state of the environment. This approach provides the necessary robustness to an autonomous mobile robot, and allows for the design simplicity. EBSA was implemented on a mobile robot, where it was able to successfully control robot's actions and to show advantages over Brooks' architecture. An expert system was used as the backbone for the EBSA's implementation. The robot performed surveillance, avoided obstacles, explored the environment, and simulated recharging of its batteries. |
