ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the design, implementation, and successful testing of the supervisor level of this system. The supervisor is responsible for managing the on-line execution of a given task plan in a specified workstation. The chapter summarizes the operating framework and objectives and provides an overview of the knowledge-based robotic system. It presents the design and experimental implementation and testing of the supervisor. The chapter also presents an initial design of the on-line supervisor that serves as a structural base from which more robust knowledge-based systems can be derived. The development of such an intelligent system requires the identification and solving of major gaps in current technology and the bringing together of a variety of scientific and technical domains. Using constructs developed for computer operating systems, the functionality of the supervisor is separated into five main sections: resource management, concurrency detection, task scheduling, error recovery, and interprocess communication.
