ROBOT TASK COMMANDER WITH EXTENSIBLE PROGRAMMING ENVIRONMENT

摘要

A system for developing distributed robot application-level software includes a robot having an associated control module which controls motion of the robot in response to a commanded task, and a robot task commander (RTC) in networked communication with the control module over a network transport layer (NTL). The RTC includes a script engine(s) and a GUI, with a processor and a centralized library of library blocks constructed from an interpretive computer programming code and having input and output connections. The GUI provides access to a Visual Programming Language (VPL) environment and a text editor. In executing a method, the VPL is opened, a task for the robot is built from the code library blocks, and data is assigned to input and output connections identifying input and output data for each block. A task sequence(s) is sent to the control module(s) over the NTL to command execution of the task.

主权项

1. A system comprising:
a robot having a control module, wherein the control module is configured to control motion of the robot in response to a received task sequence; and a robot task commander (RTC) in networked communication with the control module over a network transport layer (NTL), and having:
at least one script engine;a processor;tangible, non-transitory memory; anda graphical user interface (GUI) having a text editor and a file browser, wherein the GUI is configured to provide access to the text editor, and, via the file browser, to a centralized library of code library blocks in the memory, each constructed using the text editor from an interpretive language computer programming code, and each having an input and an output block forming pointers to required input and output data, and providing a Visual Programming Language (VPL) tool and the text editor; wherein the system is configured to execute instructions from the memory via the at least one script engine and the processor to thereby open the VPL tool, build and store the task sequence for the robot using at least some of the stored code library blocks, assign data to the input and output connections identifying the required input and output data for each library code block, and transmit the task sequence to the control module over the NTL.