Tripodal schematic control architecture for integration of multi-functional indoor service robots

This paper discusses a control architecture and a system integration strategy for multifunctional indoor service robot public service robot (PSR) systems. The authors have built three versions of the PSR systems for four target service tasks, which are delivery, patrol, guidance, and floor cleaning. They clarify the requirements of the architecture in their applications, and propose the tripodal schematic control architecture as the solution to the architectural problems. The key idea of proposed architecture is to integrate robot systems using following three frameworks, layered functionality diagram, class diagram, and configuration diagram. The proposed architecture was successfully evaluated and implemented to PSR platforms for their target tasks. Experimental results clearly showed that the developed strategy was useful for developing the autonomous service robots.