A Prolog-Based Expert System Prototype for Robot Task Planning

Abstract

This paper describes the realization of an expert system prototype of a robot task planning system used for automatic assembly of simple structures. The system involves a module which learns and identifies physical descriptions from functional definitions in order to help the user to specify the tasks s(he) wants to achieve. The output of the system is a sequence of main goals which are decomposed in a set of elementary manipulation actions, and ensure the satisfaction of the assembly task specifications. Two other supplementary modules are also included; the first for describing the items to be assembled only by their functional characteristics, and the second for dealing with space problems, such as the problem of finding free place for putting an item out of the way. The system is written in C-Prolog of a VAX 11/750, and has been tested in several cases