Improving the lifecycle of robotics components using Domain-Specific Languages

There is currently a large amount of robotics software using the component-oriented programming paradigm. However, the rapid growth in number and complexity of components may compromise the scalability and the whole lifecycle of robotics software systems. Model-Driven Engineering can be used to mitigate these problems. This paper describes how using Domain-Specific Languages to generate and describe critical parts of robotic systems helps developers to perform component managerial tasks such as component creation, modification, monitoring and deployment. Four different DSLs are proposed in this paper: i) CDSL for specifying the structure of the components, ii) IDSL for the description of their interfaces, iii) DDSL for describing the deployment process of component networks and iv) PDSL to define and configure component parameters. Their benefits have been demonstrated after their implementation in RoboComp, a general-purpose and component-based robotics framework. Examples of the usage of these DSLs are shown along with experiments that demonstrate the benefits they bring to the lifecycle of the components.