Robot Programming Methods

The lecture assumes a broad view definition of the concept of “robot programming”. Both expression of the task that the robot has to execute and the software controlling the robot will considered. A survey of robot programming approaches will be presented, i.e.: methods of programming industrial robots, libraries, programming frameworks, domain specific languages, robotic system architectures, ontologies. Next a systematic method of designing robotic systems. The method will be based on the concept of an embodied agent. The lecture will explain such concepts as: real effectors and receptors, virtual effectors and receptors, control subsystem, subsystem transition functions, initial, terminal and error conditions, behaviours, as well as finite state machines. Moreover classification of robotic systems with respect to diverse criterions will be presented. This will lead to the presentation of diverse robotic system architectures.

Familiarizing students with various methods of programming robots and creation of their controllers. The lecture focuses on creating a specification of a robotic system based on the concept of a embodied agent. The method of specifying robot control software based on an embodied agent is still being developed by the Robot Programming Group. Students’ work supports this research effort.

Lecture:

• BLOCK 1
  • Motivation and introduction
  • Methods of programming industrial robots
• BLOCK 2
  • Specialized robot programming languages
  • Robot programming libraries
  • Robot programming frameworks
  • Domain Specific Languages and Toolkits
• BLOCKS 3 i 4
  • Specification of robotic multi-agent systems
  • Agents
• BLOCK 5
  • An example of the specification of robots that perform collective pushing of a box
• BLOCK 6
  • An example of the specification of a robot endowed with eyesight
• BLOCKS 7, 8 i 9
  • An example of the specification of a robot collecting randomly distributed objects
• BLOCK 10
  • Evolution of robotic system architectures
• BLOCK 11
  • An agent approach to robotic system architectures
• BLOCK 12
  • Multi-robot systems
• BLOCK 13
  • Robot swarms
• BLOCKS 14 i 15
  • Translation methods

Project: Development of a control system specification for a given robot performing a specific task.

Students receive a project for individual realisation. Their task is to develop the specification of the given robotic system. During the implementation, students consult with the teacher as necessary and at their discretion

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