Monadic robotics

Abstract

We have developed a domain specific language for the construction of robot controllers, Frob (Functional ROBotics). The semantic basis for Frob is Functional Reactive Programming, or simply FRP, a purely functional model of continuous time, interactive systems. FRP is built around two basic abstractions: behaviors, values defined continuously in time, and events, discrete occurances in time. On this foundation, we have constructed abstractions specific to the domain of robotics. Frob adds yet another abstraction: the task, a basic unit of work defined by a continuous behavior and a terminating event.