International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems (Apr 2020)

A generic synchronous dataflow architecture to rapidly prototype and deploy robot controllers

  • Diego Ferigo,
  • Silvio Traversaro,
  • Francesco Romano,
  • Daniele Pucci

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1177/1729881420921625
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 17

Abstract

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The article presents a software architecture to optimize the process of prototyping and deploying robot controllers that are synthesized using model-based design methodologies. The architecture is composed of a framework and a pipeline. Therefore, the contribution of the article is twofold. First, we introduce an open-source actor-oriented framework that abstracts the common robotic uses of middlewares, optimizers, and simulators. Using this framework, we then present a pipeline that implements the model-based design methodology. The components of the proposed framework are generic, and they can be interfaced with any tool supporting model-based design. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach describing the application of the resulting synchronous dataflow architecture to the design of a balancing controller for the YARP-based humanoid robot iCub. This example exploits the interfacing with Simulink® and Simulink® Coder™.