RCS: a reference model architecture for intelligent control

The Real-time Control System (RCS) is a reference model architecture for intelligent real time control systems. It partitions the control problem into four basic elements: task decomposition, world modeling, sensory processing, and value judgment. It clusters these elements into computational nodes that have responsibility for specific subsystems and arranges these nodes in hierarchical layers such that each layer has characteristic functionality and timing. The RCS architecture has a systematic regularity, and recursive structure that suggests a canonical form. Systems based on the RCS architecture have been implemented more or less for a wide variety of applications that include loading and unloading of parts and tools in machine tools, controlling machining workstations, performing robotic deburring and chamfering, and controlling space station telerobots, multiple autonomous undersea vehicles, unmanned land vehicles, coal mining automation systems. postal service mail handling systems, and submarine operational automation systems. Software developers accustomed to using RCS for building control systems have found it provides a structured design approach that makes it possible to reuse a great deal of software.