Component Interface Standardization in Robotic Systems

Abstract

Components are heavily used in software systems, including robotic systems. The growth in sophistication and diversity of new capabilities for robotic systems presents new challenges to their architectures. Their complexity is growing exponentially with the advent of AI, smart sensors, and the complex tasks they have to accomplish. Such complexity requires a more flexible approach to creating, using, and interoperability of software components. The issue is exacerbated because robotic systems increasingly rely on third-party components for specific functions. In order to achieve this kind of interoperability, including dynamic component replacement, we need a way to standardize their interfaces. We desperately need a formal approach for specifying what an interface of a robotic software component should contain. This study analyzes the issue and presents a universal and generic approach to standardizing component interfaces for robotic systems. Our approach is inspired and influenced by well-established robotic architectures such as ROS, PX4, and Ardupilot. The study also applies to other software systems with similar characteristics to robotic systems. We consider using JSON or Domain-Specific Languages (DSL) development with tools such as Antlr or Xtext and automatic code and configuration files generation for frameworks such as ROS and PX4. A case study with ROS2 has been done as a proof of concept for the proposed methodology.