Deriving concurrent control software from behavioral specifications

Abstract

Concurrency is an integral part of many robotics applications, due to the need for handling inherently parallel tasks such as motion control and sensor monitoring. Writing programs for this complex domain can be hard, in particular because of the difficulties of retaining a robust modular design. We propose to use SCOOP, an object-oriented programming model for concurrency which by construction is free of data races, therefore excluding a major class of concurrent programming errors. Synchronization requirements are expressed by waiting on routine preconditions, which turns out to provide a natural framework for implementing coordination requirements in robotics applications. As demonstration application, we describe a control program for hexapod locomotion, whose implementation closely follows the corresponding behavioral specification given by the biological model. We compare the architecture with solutions expressed in more traditional approaches to robotic control applications.

Autonomous construction using scarce resources in unknown environments

“…However, there are promising ways to address this problem (Ramanathan et al 2010;Hager and Peterson 1999). In addition, to implement complex actions, an interesting research direction could be to define actions sequentially, execute each of them in its own thread and use exceptions to handle failures.…”

Simple concurrency for robotics with the Roboscoop framework

“…The Roboscoop framework builds on top of the work by Ramanathan et al [14]. The authors presented a controller for hexapod using SCOOP.…”

Performance analysis of SCOOP programs

“…Earlier work (Ramanathan et al, 2010) demonstrates that SCOOP is suitable to implement concurrent robotic control software in a way that the code has a close correspondence to the behavioral specification. The hexapod robot, shown in Fig.…”