Model Driven Design of Reliable Robot Control Programs Using the jABC

Abstract

Developing robot control applications is a software engineering domain that still relies on low-level development tools with limited testing capabilities. The Java Application Building Center (jABC), a framework for model-based application development that supports the modelling process of service-oriented software applications, on the contrary offers a number of early error detection mechanisms like animation, analysis, simulation, and formal verification. We investigate the adequacy of jABC to model, verify and implement robot control applications in a model driven paradigm, and aim at addressing the design of software for autonomous robots for space missions later on. Being able to model and verify their reconfiguration behaviour before launching them is of central importance there. We developed a proof-of-concept application that controls a Lego <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">®</sup> Mindstorms <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">™</sup> robot which finds its way through a maze. As this maze may change dynamically, the robot must be capable of reacting and adjusting its behaviour. This application was completely modelled, verified, and generated with the jABC.