An Architectural Approach to
Robotics Software Design,
Implementation, and Deployment
Brian D’Souza
Joshua Garcia
Ivo Krka
Natachart Laotheppitak
Hossein Tajalli
Outline
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Motivation
Initial Stage
Suggested Architecture
Manager
Primary Connector
Component
Example
Admin
Conclusion
Motivation
• Provide a more disciplined approach to building
embedded systems
– Applying software architectural principles to robotics
systems
• Merging of heterogeneous types of applications
in an embedded systems environment
• Abstract away lower-level software development
details
 Design using software architectural abstractions
and implement using architectural middleware
 Prism-MW
Motivation
• Desirable properties
– Distribution
– Mobility
– Scalability
– Maintainability
– Evolvability
– Concurrency
Initial Stage – Course Project
• 589 – Software Engineering for Embedded Systems taught by Prof.
Nenad Medvidovic
• Video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1355003473678326666&q=cs589&total=5&start=0&num=10&so=0&
type=search&plindex=1
Next stage
• Class project showed that students with
very limited robotics experience were able
to create a new interesting application
• Current objectives
– Creating a more general and adaptable
architecture
– Variety of possible new applications
Suggested Architecture
Admin
Physical Device
Component 1
Component 2
Primary
Connector
Component n
Deployment System
Manager
Manager
• Parameters
– List of Machine Interfaces (e.g. iRobot, Display, User Input
Device, Motion Sensor, Temperature Sensor, camera ,etc.)
– List of Components
• Discovers other hosts around and communicate with
them
• Host Rendezvous
• Request Admin to download new components from other
hosts
• Decides whether to connect one of its components to
peer components in other entities
• Decides to start and stop components (Planning)
Primary Connector
• Communicating the events between
components in the same physical entity or
between different entities
• Routing, filtering, broadcasting the
packages to desired sockets
• Connector types may vary
Component
• Components can use device drivers to
communicate with the physical devices
– E.g., for a sensor, a component can read the sensor
values
– E.g., for a robot, one component can control the robot
to follow a line, turn a corner, etc.
• Cooperation with local and remote components
– E.g., they can share positions of discovered obstacles
• Components carry information about their
supported interfaces and services
Example
Admin
Admin
Line Follower
Admin
Connector
User Interface
Connector
Connector
Wall Follower
Manager
Manager
Manager
Admin
• Supports dynamic adaptation and
component mobility
• Ability to (re)deploy components onto a
different host
– Specify connector to attach component to
– Dependent files
– Requester or replier
Admin
Manager
Admin
Connector
Component
Connector
redeploy
AdminUI
redeploy
redeploy
Connector
Admin
Byte
Array
Component
Conclusion
• Non-functional qualities of robotics
applications need to be better addressed
• Raising the level of abstraction of robotics
systems development
• Encouraging initial results of application of
our architectural approach
• Future work on realizing details of the
approach and introducing new facilities