An Implemented Universal Mission Controller with Run-Time Ethics Checking for Autonomous Unmanned Vehicles - a UUV Example
Abstract
The authors have been involved for several decades
in the development and testing of both remotely controlled and
autonomous subsea and ground vehicles. This experience has led
us to view autonomous mobile robot control problems from both
a bottom up and a top down perspective. Specifically, in our
work, we have developed and tested a three-level software
architecture called Rational Behavior Model (RBM), in which a
top (strategic) level mission control finite state machine (FSM)
orders the rational execution, at an intermediate (tactical) level,
of vehicle behaviors in such a way as to carry out a specified
mission. This implementation experience and these principles
have led us to believe that human-like intelligence and judgment
are not required to achieve a useful operational capability in
autonomous mobile robots. Furthermore, we are convinced that
a primitive but useful type of robot ethical behavior can also be
attained, even in hazardous or military environments, without
invoking concepts of artificial intelligence. To support our views,
we present a software invention called a mission execution engine
(MEE), implemented in the Prolog logic programming language.
This MEE can be shown to represent an extension of the idea of a
universal Turing machine and is therefore well grounded in
existing mathematical automata theory. We further show how
human readable mission orders, also written in Prolog, can
specialize an MEE to any desired mission control FSM. An
important aspect of our work is that mission orders can be tested
exhaustively in human executable form before being translated
into robot executable form. This provides the kind of
transparency and accountability needed for after action review of
missions, and possible legal proceedings in case of loss of life or
property resulting from errors in mission orders.
Description
OES-IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society (OES) Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) 2012, National Oceanography Center (NOC), Southampton, England, 24-27 September 2012. Paper and slideset.
NPS AUV Workbench: Papers
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