Research and design of multi-agent model structure for embedded robot dog

This paper proposes an embedded intelligent robot model based on Multi-agent, and implements it on a robot dog platform with embedded, modular components. In order to make the software structure flexible and does not depend on specific hardware, we design and divide robot into few agents by the idea, which is “thinking and learning, perception and interaction, action and control”. What's more, the model takes account of both intelligence and response capability for emergency by deliberative module and reflex module. The mechanism of Case-based Reasoning is applied to realize the deliberation of robot dog. In the simulation and actual integration test, the robot dog is able to walk, avoid obstacles, perceive and process external signals such as voice input and infrared. The results proved that preliminary success was achieved.

I. Introduction

Continuous improvements of embedded systems provide a new way to make the robot intelligent, modular and smaller. Intelligent robots based on embedded systems have several advantages such as: low-cost, compact hardware, highly modular, low-power, customizable, extensible, etc [1], [2]. For these characteristics, many researchers applied Multi-agent system (MAS) to the software design of embedded intelligent robots. The MAS consists of different agents which can work independently to achieve local tasks and collaborate to achieve global tasks. Agent does not depend on the specific hardware and has the advantages of autonomy, responsiveness, collaboration and so on. Robot software systems build models with agent, which can make the system extensible and stable. The single agent can respond to the change of environment directly, thus can improve the real-time ability of the whole system; and the intelligent degree of the system can be realized by the collaboration and coordination of the multiple agents [3]