A behavior-based blackboard architecture for multi-robot control

by (Jonathan Thomas), 1980- McClain

This thesis focuses on the development of a robust architecture for the control of multirobot teams. In particular, the use of a behavior-based blackboard architecture for multi-robot control is presented, with comparisons to other popular architectures for control such as the hierarchical architecture and the subsumption architecture. The proposed architecture was tested by developing a prototype multi-robot system called the Collective, a team of mobile robotic tanks. Preliminary testing of the architecture was done by developing behaviors to accomplish a coordinated mapping task, where the goal for the robots was to combine efforts to produce a map of a static environment (in this case an office suite).