Towards component-based robotics

TLDR

CBSE shifts focus from programming to composing systems from off‑the‑shelf and custom software components. The authors argue that robotics is especially suited for component-based approaches and that now is the right time to adopt them. They introduce Orca, an open‑source CBSE framework for mobile robotics that provides a repository of reusable components.

Abstract

This paper gives an overview of component-based software engineering (CBSE), motivates its application to the field of mobile robotics, and proposes a particular component model. CBSE is an approach to system-building that aims to shift the emphasis from programming to composing systems from a mixture of off-the-shelf and custom-built software components. This paper argues that robotics is particularly well-suited for and in need of component-based ideas. Furthermore, now is the right time for their introduction. The paper introduces Orca - an open-source component-based software engineering framework proposed for mobile robotics with an associated repository of free, reusable components for building mobile robotic systems.