A nondeterministic flowchart-based script editor

Abstract

To create robot tasks, script editing tools are commonly employed as they do not require compilers. They provide fast development for programmers and broaden the type of users to include those with non-programming backgrounds. Script editors are often based on finite state machines or flowcharts in their graphical interface design. This paper proposes a nondeterministic flowchart-based script editor, which provides functional blocks consisting of nodes and edges, where nodes are units of processing robot motions or media data and blocks are groups of nodes and edges. Edges have directions along with arithmetic, relational, and logical operators. This editor is capable of linking with programs written in many different programming languages such as C/C++, Java, and Python. The proposed editor is verified by an example, where a mobile robot is operated by a generated script composed of Open Platform for Robot Services (OPRoS) Components and a legacy Java program.