Behavior-based control systems for planetary autonomous robot outposts

Current NASA studies are examining opportunities for the deployment of robot colonies or outposts on planetary surfaces within the solar system in the first few decades of the 21st century. This paper presents the results of some ongoing work in the Planetary Robotics Laboratory at JPL in the area of behavior-based control for cooperative multi-robot systems for a planetary robot outpost. We have recently developed a behavior-based system called BISMARC (Biologically Inspired System for Map-based Autonomous Rover Control) that uses a free flow hierarchy for its action selection mechanism. We report the results of numerous simulation studies of complicated multiple rover missions.