Most of the mobile robot control frameworks are based on a middleware layer with several independent modules that implement primitive actions and report events about their state. These modules are usually connected with different interprocess communication mechanisms. Here, we propose to use hierarchical interpreted binary Petri nets to coordinate the activity of these modules. Tasks are described using an interpreted Petri net editor and saved in a xml file. A dispatcher loads these files and executes the different Petri nets under user requests. A monitor that shows the state of all the running nets is very useful for debugging and tracing purposes. The whole system has been applied to a guide robot (vixiabot) that has been guiding users in a public event (XuventudeGalicia.net) for three days in April 2007 and is now extended to a multirobot surveillance application.

Describes a set of tools that allows a developer to instrument an autonomous control system to log data at run-time and then analyze that data to verify correct program behavior. Analysis is done using an interval logic that allows system engineers to express complex, temporal specifications to be checked against the logged data of the autonomous control program. A feature of both the logging and analysis is that they can work with distributed programs. All data is synchronized into a common database. The data logging tools and the interval logic are fully implemented. Results are given from a NASA distributed autonomous control system application.

This paper presents a general approach to robust execution monitoring. The goal is to provide coverage for many types of unexpected and unanticipated situations, while at the same time enabling the robot to quickly detect, and react to, specific contingencies. The approach uses a hierarchy of monitors, structured in layers of increasing specificity. We present the general approach, and show its application in the domain of indoor mobile robot navigation.