Rate modulation of soft real-time tasks in autonomous robot control systems

Due to the high number of sensors managed and need to perform complex reasoning activities, real-time control systems of autonomous robots exhibit a high potential for overload, i.e., real-time tasks missing their deadlines. In these systems overload should be regarded as a likely occurrence and hence managed accordingly. In this paper we illustrate a novel scheduling technique for adaptation of soft real-time load to available computational capacity in the context of autonomous robot control architectures. The technique is based on rate modulation of a set of periodic tasks in a range of admissible rates. The technique is shown to be easily computable and several variations in implementation are reviewed within the paper.