How to program robot hardware

1
How to program robot hardware
Why care about?

• Sascha Lange
• salange_at_uos.de

2
Common Problems one has to cope with

• Different µControllers
• 8/16/12 bit architectures
• Address space
• Command sets
• Firmware / bootstrap-loaders
• Operating systems
• Proprietary programming languages
• Logo, c-control basic,
• Standardized programming languages
• Reduced/modified command sets
• Java, nqc

• Communication
• Programming serial/parallel ports, (Radio) LAN
• Protocols
• Packet layout
• Data encoding
• Checksums
• Collision detection
• Peer2Peer / Client-Server
• Interfacing Input / Output
• AD, DA, analog, digital, integrating,
  differentiating, IO-bus

3
How to handle the hardware problem

• Use standard techniques of abstraction
• Dont forget everything youve learned about good
  software design
• Modules / Layers / Communication
• Defining and implementing interfaces
• Use operating system independent techniques

4
Client - Server Architecture

• Brain is in the client (Russell and Norvig like
  agent)
• Client depends only on language of server
• Independent of hardware
• Independent of used operating system / software
• Independent of communication channel
• Free choice of the programming language

5
Server changes with hardware
Robot Side
Client Side
Client

• Transmission layer
• Control / initialisation of a port
• Line control (RX, TX, Select etc.)
• Bi- / unidirectional

6
Transparency
Sensory Server
Action Server
Client
Simulation Server
Monolithic RF Server