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Commanding Multi-Robot Systems
with Robot Operating System
Using Battle Management Language
Thomas Remmersmann 1 , Alexander Tiderko 1 ,
Marco Langerwisch 2 , Stefan Thamke 3 , Markus Ax 3
1 Fraunhofer Institute for Communication, Information, Processing and Ergonomics FKIE,
D-53343 Wachtberg, Germany, {thomas.remmersmann, alexander.tiderko}@fkie.fraunhofer.de
2 Leibniz Universität Hannover, Real Time Systems Group (RTS),
D-30167 Hannover, Germany, langerwisch@rts.uni-hannover.de
3 University of Siegen, Institute of Real-Time Learning Systems (EZLS),
D-57068 Siegen, Germany, {stefan.thamke, markus.ax}@uni-siegen.de
Abstract: Multi-Robot Systems have become an important research topic. One of the main questions,
when looking at usability of a MRS, is how it can be controlled. In this paper we describe an approach
were the commanding is done by using an artificial language very similar to English, the Battle
Management Language (BML). The orders can thus be created intuitively and on a high abstraction
level. We developed a GUI to allow fast and efficient creating of orders for the robots system. On
the robots we used the Robot Operating System (ROS). The interpretation and execution of the orders
are controlled by ROS nodes. We created control nodes for every robot which handle the execution
of a task for a single robot. We also created intelligent nodes for groups of robots. These nodes handle
commands directed to a group of robots and split that BML order into BML orders for each robot.
These orders are sent to the control nodes and executed by the robots. ROS provides numerous
of libraries and tools which helps to create new robot applications. We mainly used the publish
subscriber based communication capabilities. In this paper we concentrated on the architecture and
how the translation of BML orders into basic ROS command is done and how feedback messages
were sent back to the C2 System. This presented work is the result of cooperation between the Real
Time Systems Group (RTS), Leibniz Universität Hannover, the Institute of Real-Time Learning
Systems (EZLS), University of Siegen and the Fraunhofer Institute for Communication, Information
Processing and Ergonomics.
Keywords: natural language, BML, multi-robot systems, C2 systems, ROS
I. Introduction
There are many reasons to use a multi-robot system instead of a single robot.
Multiple robots can do some jobs more cheaply, faster or more reliably, e.g., a group
of different robots can reconnoiter an area towards different aspects. UAVs might