The Robot Architecture Framework - A systematic approach for describing the architecture of complex, autonomous robotic systems.

Many autonomous robots are currently designed based on the system architect’s
individual experience and knowledge, taking into account given factors such as
application and environment. The complexity of robots, but also the diversity of
systems, applications and fields of use, make it difficult to compare these individual
solutions and to transfer architectural approaches to new system designs.
This thesis answers the research question of how the knowledge about robot architecture contained in existing systems can be made accessible. The developed process
enables the systematic capturing of the architecture of autonomous robot systems.
The resulting structured architecture descriptions make it possible to identify similarities and differences in the architectures of different systems despite the complexity
and heterogeneity of robots.
The methodology chosen is an extension of the Architecture Framework concept.
This approach, which originates from the field of software development, is used to
capture the architectures of distributed software systems. This work transfers and
extends the approach to the domain of robotics by defining a Robot Architecture
Framework. The architecture description process based on this framework enables
the architecture of existing robotic systems to be identified.
The applicability of the process is demonstrated using three very different robotic
systems. It is shown that compact architecture descriptions can be generated despite
the complexity and heterogeneity of the systems. In addition, the broad applicability
of the defined process is also conceptually validated.