Towards A Domain-specific Language For Pick-And-Place Applications

Abstract: Programming robots is a complicated and time-consuming task. A robot is essentially a real-time, distributed embedded system. Often, control and communication paths within the system are tightly coupled to the actual physical configuration of the robot. Thus, programming a robot is a very challenging task for domain experts who do not have a dedicated background in robotics. In this paper we present an approach towards a domain specific language, which is intended to reduce the efforts and the complexity which is required when developing robotic applications. Furthermore we apply a software product line approach to realize a configurable code generator which produces C++ code which can either be run on real robots or on a robot simulator.