A flexible framework for task-oriented programming of service robots

In this paper we present a technology that establishes a framework for task-oriented programming of mobile robot systems. The framework allows writing distributed control or monitoring programs for easy adoption of robots to specific tasks. It enables the programmer to send programs referred to as Roblets® to a Roblet®-server running on the robot. Contrary to other distributed system frameworks these Roblets® consist of data and code. The Roblet®-server executes the Roblets® with well-defined behaviour, even in case of malfunctions. The framework hides all network details from the programmer, so that writing programs on a local computer is similar to working directly with the remote robot. This decreases the development time of programs controlling the robots. The framework is implemented in JavaTM and tested with two service robots.