Robotics software engineering: a perspective from the service robotics domain

Abstract

Robots that support humans by performing useful tasks (a.k.a., service robots) are booming worldwide. In contrast to industrial robots, the development of service robots comes with severe software engineering challenges, since they require high levels of robustness and autonomy to operate in highly heterogeneous environments. As a domain with critical safety implications, service robotics faces a need for sound software development practices. In this paper, we present the first large-scale empirical study to assess the state of the art and practice of robotics software engineering. We conducted 18 semi-structured interviews with industrial practitioners working in 15 companies from 9 different countries and a survey with 156 respondents from 26 countries from the robotics domain. Our results provide a comprehensive picture of (i) the practices applied by robotics industrial and academic practitioners, including processes, paradigms, languages, tools, frameworks, and reuse practices, (ii) the distinguishing characteristics of robotics software engineering, and (iii) recurrent challenges usually faced, together with adopted solutions. The paper concludes by discussing observations, derived hypotheses, and proposed actions for researchers and practitioners. CCS CONCEPTS • Computer systems organization → Robotics; • Software and its engineering;

RoboMAX: Robotic Mission Adaptation eXemplars

“…We added 11 exemplars to RoboMAX, each obtained by: 1) Collecting robotic mission requirements. Some of our robotic mission requirements come from a recent survey that analyzes the state of the art and practice of robotics software engineering [7] (i.e., six mission requirements) and the rest are defined in collaboration with industrial partners (i.e., five mission requirements). For the latter,…”

“…As mentioned in Sec. III, our exemplars were extracted from a survey on robotics software engineering [7] and a research project proposal. We marked these exemplars as industry-sourced since they were defined in collaboration with industrial partners.…”

“…The development of the control software for robotic systems is a recognized challenge that demands new software engineering methods and techniques [6], not least to achieve self-adaptation. This demand has increased the software engineering community's interest in understanding the needs of the robotics domain [7], and in developing solutions that address these needs [8,4]. In this context, a major difficulty faced by researchers and practitioners has been the scarcity of model problems [9] that can be readily used to guide research into, and to support the development of, such solutions.…”

A Deployment Framework for Formally Verified Human-Robot Interactions

“…Among the surveyed opensource tools, CoppeliaSim has been selected. CoppeliaSim (formerly V-REP) 3 is a general-purpose simulation tool that supports a plethora of robots, ranging from industrial manipulators to wheeled mobile platforms [16]. The tool provides a fully programmable model of a human, which is fundamental for developing interactive applications.…”

“…For the assistive robotics field, there is a specific emphasis on automating the most time-consuming technical tasks (such as code generation) so that practitioners can focus on high-level mission design and configuration. Furthermore, a recently conducted survey on the current state of software engineering for service robotics [3] has highlighted the most pressing challenges for this domain. This paper targets the demand for a code generation mechanism, deployment framework, and validation environment that can cope with the highly unpredictable environment in which robots operate [4].…”