micROS. BT: An Event-Driven Behavior Tree Framework for Swarm Robots

In this paper, we propose micROS. BT, an event-driven behavior tree (BT) framework aiming at supporting swarm-robot coordination. Compared with other BT frame-works, micROS. BT implements the event-driven way under the multi-thread mode, which can effectively save computing resources. Moreover, in order to ensure swarm-robot coordination, we optimize the implementation of the traditional blackboard and propose the multi-mode blackboard, which supports inner-tree, inter-tree, and inter-robot data sharing. Furthermore, considering the limited modularity of a single tree, micROS. BT realizes a mechanism called hierarchical tree management which involves inter-tree notifying and waiting functionalities, while ensuring that each tree is independent and self-scheduled. The effectiveness of micROS. BT is verified by simulation and real-robot experiments for different system settings, showing that a substantial improvement is achieved in comparison with the traditional BT implementations.

Authors

• Yunlong Wu 0002
• Jinghua Li
• Huadong Dai
• Xiaodong Yi 0002
• Yanzhen Wang
• Xuejun Yang

Keywords

• Computers
• Computational modeling
• Swarm robotics
• Central Processing Unit
• Task analysis
• Intelligent robots
• Framework For Robots
• Behavior Trees
• Single Tree
• Hierarchical Management
• Traditional Implementation
• Parallelization
• Flow Control
• Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
• Root Node
• Application Programming Interface
• Tree Nodes
• Matrix M
• Node Activity
• Current Node
• Key-value Pairs
• CPU Usage
• Synchronization Mechanism
• Current Memory
• Shared Memory
• CPU Resources
• Brigham Young University
• Subsequent Nodes