Design patterns for behavior-based robotics

The use of patterns allows proven design expertise to be captured, communicated and reused in areas such as architecture and object-oriented programming. The artificial intelligence discipline of behavior-based robotics is an area in which such design expertise has undoubtedly accumulated, although it has not been captured and formalized. Consequently, the creation of these robotic systems remains a relatively unstructured process requiring a large amount of trial-and-error development. There is therefore a strong case for representing the previous design expertise which has been developed in this field. This paper describes how this may be achieved through the use of design patterns.