A Programming Framework for Multi-agent Coordination of Robotic Ecologies

Building smart environments with Robotic ecologies, comprising of distributed sensors, actuators and mobile robot devices facilitates and extends the nature and form of smart environments that can be developed, and reduces the complexity and cost of such solutions. While the potentials of such an approach makes robotic ecologies increasingly popular, many fundamental research questions remain open. One such question is how to make a robotic ecology self-adaptive, so as to adapt to changing conditions and evolving requirements, and consequently reduce the amount of preparation and pre-programming required for their deployment in real world applications. This paper presents a framework for the specification and the programming of robotic ecologies. The framework extends an existing agent system and integrates it with the pre-existing and dominant traditional robotic and middleware approach to the development of robotic ecologies. We illustrate how these technologies complement each other and offer a candidate technology to pursue adaptive robotic ecologies.