Execution control of robotic tasks: a Petri net-based approach

The problem of controlling the execution of motion estimation and control tasks in intelligent robotic systems is addressed in this paper. A methodology for automatically transforming conventional task-variable graphs representing the execution level of intelligent control architectures in Petri nets is presented. The proposed Petri net representation allows the design and implementation of an execution control module which, through suitable graph-search algorithms, generates sequences of task activation/deactivation operations which execute the desired commands maintaining the system in admissible configurations. The application of the proposed methodology to the execution control of the navigation, guidance and control system of the Romeo ROV is described and discussed.