CoolBOT: a component model and software infrastructure for robotics

Abstract

In general, we face recurrently some common problems when programming robotic systems: multithreading and multiprocessing, distributed computing, hardware abstraction, hardware and software integration, multiple levels of abstraction and control, the development of a programming tool for a group of users which may become wide and diverse, etc. In this document we will introduce CoolBOT, a component oriented programming framework implementing primitives and mechanisms aimed to support the resolution of some of these common problems. This framework allows building systems by integrating “off-the-shelf” software components following a port automata model [SVK97] that fosters controllability and observability. Next section, Section 2, will introduce some of the recurrent problems we can find when developing the software infrastructure aimed to control a robotic system. In Section 3 we introduce a component oriented programming framework for programming robotic systems called CoolBOT which is the main subject of this chapter. In Section 4 we will outline the use of CoolBOT for building a real example. Finally in Section 5 we outline some of the conclusions we have drawn along the way of building and using CoolBOT.