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A Visual Programming Approach for Co-designed Robots

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 September 2020

Andrés S. Vázquez Open the ORCID record for Andrés S. Vázquez [Opens in a new window] ,
Tomás Calvo ,
Raúl Fernández  and
Francisco Ramos
Andrés S. Vázquez*
Affiliation:
School of Industrial Engineering, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Avda. Camilo José Cela, s/n, 13071 Ciudad Real, Spain. E-mails: andress.vazquez@uclm.es, raul.fernandez@uclm.es, francisco.ramos@uclm.es
Tomás Calvo
Affiliation:
Mundo Reader S.L. (BQ), Calle Dublín 1, 28232 Las Rozas, Madrid, Spain. E-mail: tomas.calvo@bq.com
Raúl Fernández
Affiliation:
School of Industrial Engineering, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Avda. Camilo José Cela, s/n, 13071 Ciudad Real, Spain. E-mails: andress.vazquez@uclm.es, raul.fernandez@uclm.es, francisco.ramos@uclm.es
Francisco Ramos
Affiliation:
School of Industrial Engineering, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Avda. Camilo José Cela, s/n, 13071 Ciudad Real, Spain. E-mails: andress.vazquez@uclm.es, raul.fernandez@uclm.es, francisco.ramos@uclm.es
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: andress.vazquez@uclm.es
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Summary

This paper proposes an approach for the high-level programming of co-designed robots that reduces programming complexity. Particularly, the work presented focuses on the programming framework of an intelligent system, based on the IEEE Standard Ontologies for Robotics and Automation, which allows users the automatic design of robots and the automatic implementation of controllers in the Robot Operating System (ROS). In our approach, the co-designed robot functionalities are automatically translated into visual programming blocks allowing non-expert users an easy robot programming by means of a visual programming language. Several robot configurations and three case studies are provided as a proof of concept. The validation, in terms of usability, of the framework has been carried out with inexperienced users showing promising results.

Keywords

Co-designVisual programmingRobotic ontologiesModular robotsSoftware usability

Information

Type
Article
Information
Robotica , Volume 39 , Issue 6 , June 2021 , pp. 1116 - 1139
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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