TRACLabs Inc. develops intelligent control architectures that provide robust autonomy to robotic platforms. These architectures combine reactivity with deliberation to accommodate both real-time closed-loop control and long-range planning and execution of tasks. Our approach emphasizes adjustable autonomy whereby a human operator can easily intervene at any level of robot operation. We invented the layered approach to controlling robotic systems. This software is called 3T because it has three interacting layers (or tiers) of control - one for low-level robot control one for sequencing basic robot operations and one for planning robotic resource and time constraints. MARS (Modular Anthropomorphic Robotic System) is a commercially available 7 Degree-of-Freedom (7-DOF) robotic manipulator specifically designed to be easily integrated into mobile or static robotic systems. This Modular Anthropomorphic Robotic System (MARS) manipulator gains its modularity aspect by integrating the control and power electronics within each arm joint thus allowing the arm to be quickly mounted to a robotic fixture with only two electrical connections (power and communication). Thus other than a computer to communicate with the arm and co-ordinate joint motion no additional external control box is necessary reducing overall system volume requirements.
