17. A robot platform, comprising: at least one perceptor configured for perceiving environmental variables of interest; at least one locomotor configured for providing mobility to the robot platform; a system controller configured for executing a generic robot architecture, the generic robot architecture comprising: a hardware abstraction level configured for developing a plurality of hardware abstractions for defining, monitoring, and controlling a plurality of hardware modules available on the robot platform; a robot abstraction level configured for defining a plurality of robot attributes comprising at least one of the plurality of hardware abstractions; and a robot behavior level configured for defining a plurality of robot behaviors comprising at least one of the plurality of robot attributes; wherein: each robot attribute of the plurality is configured for substantially isolating the robot behaviors from the plurality of hardware abstractions; each hardware abstraction of the plurality is configured for substantially isolating the plurality of robot attributes from a corresponding hardware module of the plurality; at least two hardware abstractions are configured to provide substantially similar hardware information to at least one of the plurality of robot attributes; and the at least one of the plurality of robot attributes is configured to combine the hardware information from each of the at least two hardware abstractions to form attribute information for the at least one of the plurality of robot attributes and can disregard the hardware information from one of the at least two hardware abstractions in forming the attribute information.
17. A robot platform, comprising: at least one perceptor configured for perceiving environmental variables of interest; at least one locomotor configured for providing mobility to the robot platform; a system controller configured for executing a generic robot architecture, the generic robot architecture comprising: a hardware abstraction level configured for developing a plurality of hardware abstractions for defining, monitoring, and controlling a plurality of hardware modules available on the robot platform; a robot abstraction level configured for defining a plurality of robot attributes comprising at least one of the plurality of hardware abstractions; and a robot behavior level configured for defining a plurality of robot behaviors comprising at least one of the plurality of robot attributes; wherein: each robot attribute of the plurality is configured for substantially isolating the robot behaviors from the plurality of hardware abstractions; each hardware abstraction of the plurality is configured for substantially isolating the plurality of robot attributes from a corresponding hardware module of the plurality; at least two hardware abstractions are configured to provide substantially similar hardware information to at least one of the plurality of robot attributes; and the at least one of the plurality of robot attributes is configured to combine the hardware information from each of the at least two hardware abstractions to form attribute information for the at least one of the plurality of robot attributes and can disregard the hardware information from one of the at least two hardware abstractions in forming the attribute information. 20. The robot platform of claim 17 , wherein the plurality of hardware abstractions are selected from the group consisting of manipulation abstractions of manipulation type devices, communication abstractions of communication media and communication protocols, locomotion abstractions of locomotion hardware, and perception abstractions of perception type devices.