RoboGrams: A Lightweight Message Passing Architecture for RoboCup Soccer

Abstract

RoboGrams is a lightweight and efficient message passing architecture that we designed for the RoboCup domain and that has been successfully used by the Northern Bites SPL team. This unique architecture provides a framework for separating code into strongly decoupled modules, which are combined into configurable dataflow graphs. We present several different architecture types and preexisting message passing implementations, but among all of these, we contend that Robo-Grams' features make it particularly well suited for use in RoboCup. As a success story, we describe the Northern Bites' use of RoboGrams and the benefits it has provided to a single team, but we also suggest that it could help SPL teams collaborate in the future.