AV-shell, an environment for autonomous robotic applications using active vision

In this paper, we present a system called the Active Vision Shell (AV-shell ) which provides a programming framework for expressing and implementing au tonomous robotic tasks using perception and action where perception is prov ided by active vision. The AV-shell is a system with a powerful interactive C-shell style interface providing many important capabilities including: ( 1) architectural support; (2) an abstract interface enabling interaction wi th a wide variety of devices; (3) a rich set of visual routines; and (4) a process composition framework. The utility of the AV-shell is demonstrated in several examples showing the relevance of the AV-shell to meaningful app lications in autonomous robotics.