ROBOT HAVING ADDITIONAL COMPUTING DEVICE

A modular robot development kit includes an extensible mobile robot platform and a programmable development module that connects to the mobile robot platform. The mobile robot platform includes a controller that executes robot behaviors concurrently and performs robot actions in accordance with robot control signals received from the development module, as modified by the concurrently running robot behaviors, as a safeguard against performing potentially damaging robot actions. Also, the user can develop software that is executed on the development module and which transmits the robot control signals to the mobile robot platform over the data communication link using a robot interface protocol. The robot interface protocol encapsulates potentially harmful user-developed software routines from the controller instructions executed by the controller of the mobile robot platform, while nonetheless enabling the user to effectively control the mobile robot platform using the robot control signals of the robot interface protocol.