Programming Multi-robot Systems with X-KLAIM

• Published in: Leveraging Applications of Formal Methods, Verification and Validation. Adaptation and Learning Vol. 13703; pp. 283 - 300
• Main Authors: Bettini, Lorenzo, Bourr, Khalid, Pugliese, Rosario, Tiezzi, Francesco
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Springer 2022; Springer Nature Switzerland
• Series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science
• Subjects: Multi-robot systems; Multiple tuple spaces; ROS
• ISBN: 3031197585; 9783031197581
• ISSN: 0302-9743; 1611-3349
• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-19759-8_18

Software development for robotics applications is still a major challenge that becomes even more complex when considering a Multi-Robot System (MRS). Such a distributed software has to perform multiple cooperating tasks in a well-coordinated manner to avoid unsatisfactory emerging behavior. This paper provides an approach for programming MRSs at a high abstraction level using the programming language X-Klaim. The computation and communication model of X-Klaim, based on multiple distributed tuple spaces, permits to coordinate with the same abstractions and mechanisms both intra- and inter-robot interactions of an MRS. This allows developers to focus on MRS behavior, achieving readable and maintainable code. The proposed approach can be used in practice through the integration of X-Klaim and the popular robotics framework ROS. We show the proposal’s feasibility and effectiveness by implementing an MRS scenario.