Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Reactive Robots in the Service of Production Management

  • Published:
Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In this paper, we advocate the use of reactive robots in industrial process control and production management. It is explained why reactive robots are well-suited to modern industrial applications that necessitate a high degree of autonomy and reactivity to unforeseen events and an illustrative example is studied in depth. A reactive robot whose role is to regulate the demands of a set of service units for tool use is described and different behavioral models for it studied and compared. Extensive simulation studies have revealed that a behavioral model relying on individual independent motivations of the robot is sufficient for it to exhibit the “optimal” behavior in this case. The process is modeled as a dynamical system that tends by itself to a steady state and that is perturbed by the robot. In turn, the robot's motivations have a steady state of their own which is contradictory with the process' steady state and hence is perturbed by its presence. As a consequence, the robot and the process are two coupled dynamical systems that perturb each other as each one tries to arrive to its steady state. For the designer, modeling of the overall problem in this way, has as a consequence that the motivational state space of the robot may be designed in advance given the process characteristics and this design should be based on a worst-case analysis. The mythical distinction between reactivity and planning is also rediscussed and the notion of operationality as opposed to optimality is explored.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Allen, J. F., Hendler, J., and Tate, A. (eds): Readings in Planning, Morgan Kaufmann, San Mateo, CA, 1990.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Almgren, R.: On Knowledge-Based Planning and Programming Systems for Flexible Automatic Assembly, University of Linköping, Studies in Science and Technology, Thesis no. 176, LiU-Tek-Lic-1989:16.

  3. Arkin, R. C. and Murphy, R. R.: Autonomous navigation in a manufacturing environment, IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation RA-6(4) (1990), 445–454.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Baldwin, K. E.: Autonomous manufacturing systems, in: Proceedings of the 1989 IEEE International Symposium on Intelligent Control, Albany, NY, September 1989, pp. 214–220.

  5. Balkenius, C.: Motivation and attention in an autonomous agent, in: Presentation Workshop on Architectures Underlying Motivation and Emotion – WAUME 93, University of Birmingham, 1993.

  6. Brooks, R. A.: Intelligence without representation, Artificial Intelligence, Special Issue on the Foundations of Artificial Intelligence 47(1–3) (1991), 139–159.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Brooks, R. A.: Intelligence without reason, M.I.T. AI Memo No. 1293, April 1991, also Computers and Thought Workshop, IJCAI-91.

  8. Desrochers, A. A. and Silva, M. (eds): IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation, Special Issue on Computer Integrated Manufacturing 10(2) (1994).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Doty, K. L. and Van Aken, R. E.: Swarm robot materials handling paradigm for a manufacturing workcell, in: Proceedings of the 1993 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Atlanta, GA, May 1993, pp. 778–782.

  10. Fischer, K.: Modelling autonomous systems in a flexible manufacturing system, in: Proceedings of the IJCAI '93 Workshop on Dynamically Interacting Robots, Chambéry, France, August 1993, pp. 109–116.

  11. Halperin, J. P. R.: Cognition and emotion in animals and machines, in: H. L. Roitblat and J.-A. Meyer (eds), Comparative Approaches to Cognitive Science, MIT Press, 1995, pp. 465–500.

  12. Hogg, T. and Huberman, B. A.: Better than the best: The power of cooperation, in: L. Nadel and D. Stein (eds), SFI 1992 Lecture Notes in Complex Systems, Addison-Wesley, 1993, pp. 163–184.

  13. Jones, P. F.: CAD/CAM: Features, Applications and Management, Macmillan, London, 1992.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Kusiak, A.: Manufacturing systems: A knowledge-and optimization-based approach, Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems 3 (1990), 27–50.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Levi, P. and Will, T.: A study of the dynamical behaviour of a self-organised production system, Poster Presentation, Artificial Life IV Workshop, Cambridge, MA, July 1994, 6 p.

  16. McFarland, D. and Bösser, T.: Intelligent Behavior in Animals and Robots, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Meystel, A.: Intelligent control: A sketch of the theory, Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems 2 (1989), 97–107.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Ranky, P. G.: Computer Integrated Manufacturing – An Introduction with Case Studies, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1986.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Rotstadås, A. (ed): Computer-Aided Production Management, Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, 1988.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Schraft, R. D., Degenhart, E., and Hägele, M.: Service robots: The appropriate level of automation and the role of operators in the task execution, in: Proceedings of the 1993 IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics Conference, pp. 163–169.

  21. Suzuki, T., Kanehara, T., Inaba, A., and Okuma, S.: On algebraic and graph structural properties of assembly Petri nets, in: Proceedings of the 1993 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Atlanta, GA, May 1993, pp. 507–514.

  22. Toates, T.: Motivational Systems, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1986.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Tzafestas, S. G. and Tzafestas, E. S.: The blackboard architecture in knowledge-based robotic systems, in: T. Jordanides and B. Torby (eds), Expert Systems and Robotics, NATO ASI Series Vol. F71, Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, 1991, pp. 285–317.

    Google Scholar 

  24. Tzafestas, E. S.: A cellular control architecture for autonomous robots, in: Proceedings of the 1994 International Workshop on Intelligent Robotic Systems, Grenoble, July 1994, pp. 70–79.

  25. Tzafestas, E. S.: Reactive robots in the service of production management, in: Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Intelligent Autonomous Systems (IAS-4), Karlsruhe, March 1995, pp. 449–456.

  26. Tzafestas, E. S.: Vers une systémique des agents autonomes: Des cellules, des motivations et des perturbations, Ph.D. thesis, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, December 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  27. Verschure, P. F. M. J.: Formal minds and biological brains, in: IEEE Expert, October 1993, pp. 66–75.

  28. Wilson, E. O.: Sociobiology – The New Synthesis, Belknap Press/Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1975.

    Google Scholar 

  29. Wright, P. J. and Bourne, D. A. (eds): Manufacturing Intelligence, Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1988.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Intelligent Robotics and Automation Laboratory, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, National Technical University of Athens, Zographou, 15773, Greece

    Elpida S. Tzafestas

Authors
  1. Elpida S. Tzafestas
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Tzafestas, E.S. Reactive Robots in the Service of Production Management. Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems 21, 179–191 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007915102641

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007915102641

Search

Navigation