Bárbara Álvarez

Design of service robots

This article relates our experiences over the last 15 years in the development of robotic applications within the field of service robotics, using the techniques proposed by software engineering. The process began with domain engineering and reference architectures, moved on to component-oriented development, and currently centered on model-driven design. One of the key problems in software development for robotic systems is that the possibilities of reusing software in new applications are frequently limited. This means that we are forced over and over to solve the same problems starting practically from zero every time. The possible causes of this include the following: 1) robotics specialists normally concentrate more on developing algorithms and the way to solve concrete problems than on organizing the software; 2) lack of good standards for the development of robotic software and implementations of these standards; 3) the case studies conducted to demonstrate the viability of software engineering techniques traditionally deal with information management systems; and 4) the robotics community see software engineering not as a solution but as another problem that adds complexity to already complex problems. This research has helped to demonstrate the viability of using software engineering techniques in real industrial applications, albeit using academic tools that cannot readily be accepted by industry.

Wireless sensor network application development: an architecture-centric MDE approach

Nowadays, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are a very promising research field since they find application in many different areas. Current proposals for WSN system development are mainly focused on implementation issues and they rarely rely on a Software Engineering methodology which supports their entire development life-cycle. The Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) approach can contribute to solve this problem by allowing designers to model their systems at different abstraction levels, providing them with automatic model transformations to incrementally refine abstract models into more concrete ones. In this vein, this paper presents a MDE approach to WSN application development. Three levels of abstraction have been defined which allow designers to build: (1) domain-specific models, (2) component-based architecture descriptions, and (3) platform-specific models. Automatic model transformations between these three abstraction levels have been designed and, in order to demonstrate the viability of the proposal, a real WSN application has been developed using the implemented tools.

Robots in radioactive environments

With improving technology and the growing perception of the need to keep human workers away from high radiation areas, more competitive robotic systems are increasingly becoming available. This article describes our ten years of experience in developing telerobotic systems for maintenance operations in the Spanish nuclear industry. It also describes a teleoperation platform that can be used with standard robots or with specially designed service robots. The modular architecture of this teleoperation platform has allowed the reuse of software components designed for very different applications and drastically reduce development lead time.

Habitation: A Domain-Specific Language for Home Automation

The appearance of model-driven engineering (MDE) has invigorated research on domain-specific languages (DSLs) and automatic code generation. MDE uses models to build software, thereby displacing source code as the development processs main feature. DSLs provide easy, intuitive descriptions of the system using graphic models. In this new context, DSLs facilitate work in the first design stages. In addition, MDE helps reduce DSL development costs. It therefore represents a synergistic union that can significantly improve software development.

Integrating aspects in software architectures: PRISMA applied to robotic tele-operated systems

Aspect-Oriented Software Development (AOSD) has emerged as a new approach to develop software systems by improving their structure, reuse, maintenance and evolution properties. It is being applied to all stages of the software life cycle. In this paper, we present the PRISMA approach, which introduces AOSD in software architectures. PRISMA is characterized by integrating aspects as first-order citizens of software architectures. This paper shows how the PRISMA methodology is applied to develop a case study of the tele-operation system domain. We illustrate how the PRISMA approach can improve the development and maintenance processes of these kinds of industrial systems.

A framework for developing home automation systems: From requirements to code

This article presents an integrated framework for the development of home automation systems following the model-driven approach. By executing model transformations the environment allows developers to generate executable code for specific platforms. The tools presented in this work help developers to model home automation systems by means of a domain specific language which is later transformed into code for home automation specific platforms. These transformations have been defined by means of graph grammars and template engines extended with traceability capabilities. Our framework also allows the models to be reused for different applications since a catalogue of requirements is provided. This framework enables the development of home automation applications with techniques for improving the quality of both the process and the models obtained. In order to evaluate the benefits of the approach, we conducted a survey among developers that used the framework. The analysis of the outcome of this survey shows which conditions should be fulfilled in order to increase reusability.

Reference architecture for robot teleoperation:: development details and practical use

This work has been partially supported by the Spanish Government Programmes for Research in Electrical Power (project PIE-041049), and for Technological Actuation in Industry (PAUTA projects 753/ 95 y 53/96). TRON is supported inside EUREKA– MAINE program (EU1565).

APPLYING MDE TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF FLEXIBLE AND REUSABLE WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are a very promising research field since they are applicable in many different areas. Current proposals for WSN system development are mainly focused on implementation issues and rarely use a Software Engineering methodology to support their development life cycle. The Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) approach can be used as a solution to this by allowing designers to model their systems at different abstraction levels, providing them with automatic model transformations to incrementally refine abstract models into more concrete ones. In this vein, this paper presents an MDE approach to WSN application development. Three levels of abstraction have been defined which allow designers to build: (1) domain-specific models, (2) component-based architecture descriptions, and (3) platform-specific models. Automatic model transformations between these three abstraction levels have been designed and, in order to demonstrate the viability of the proposal, a real WSN application has been developed using the implemented tools.

Introducing Safety Requirements Traceability Support in Model-Driven Development of Robotic Applications

Requirements traceability is a technique intended to help determine the impact of changes in software design, support their integration, preserve knowledge, and assure the quality and correctness of the overall system. This paper presents an approach that considers traceability of safety requirements in the context of model-driven development of teleoperated services robots. The combination of the model-driven approach with safety requirements traceability makes it possible to construct systems using techniques for automatically identifying, managing, and mitigating risks so that these systems are safe enough to work in a particular environment. To secure the advantages of these mechanisms, we have developed a tool that provides users with traceability reports after applying model transformations. These reports enable developers to determine whether or not all safety requirements have been considered, the impact of changing a safety requirement, and how they are considered both in architectural decisions and code implementations.

Ship shape in Europe: cooperative robots in the ship repair industry

This paper presents a robotic system for hull grit blasting that achieves high-quality surface preparation while drastically reducing waste with zero emissions to the environment. This technology is integrated in a fully automated, low-cost blasting system. This paper also reports on the development of an Environmental Friendly and Cost-effective Technology for Coating Removal System by a European consortium, which brings together shipyards, equipment manufacturers and research centers.