4-D/RCS Reference Model Architecture for Unmanned Ground Vehicles

4-D/RCS Reference Model Architecture for Unmanned Ground Vehicles James S. Albus Intelligent Systems Division National Institute of Standards and Technology Gaithersburg, MD 20899 Abstract 4-D/RCS is the reference model architecture currently being developed for the Demo III Experimental Unmanned Vehicle program. 4-D/RCS integrates the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) RCS (Real-time Control System) with the German (Universitat der Bundeswehr Munchen) VaMoRs 4-D approach (3-Dimensions + time) to dynamic machine vision. The 4-D/RCS architecture consists of a hierarchy of computational nodes each of which contains behavior generation (BG), world modeling (WM), sensory processing (SP), and value judgment (VJ) processes. Each node also contains a knowledge database (KD) and an operator interface. These computational nodes are arranged such that the BG processes represent organizational units within a command and control hierarchy.