The intelligent robotics system architecture applied to robotics testbeds and research platforms

A complete robotic system software architecture is presented including elements of an operator control station and the Intelligent Robotics System Architecture (IRSA) for embedded robotic system software. The architecture has been implemented for various robotics testbeds and prototypes including comet surface sample return sampling validation, Europa Lander sampling autonomy, Mars 2020 mission testbeds, and the RoboSimian mobile robot. IRSA provides a reference architecture for development of complete robotics systems or systems with knowledge of what subset of capabilities are provided. The architecture is presented and its use in various applications is described. The system includes operator side components including sequence generation and simulation and robot side components such as hierarchical behaviors and sequencing.