A pragmatic approach to dimensional analysis for mobile robotic programming

Abstract

An application-specific approach to the design of a robot programming language may allow for a language better suited to the unique challenges found when programming in this domain. One area of robotics programming that can be supported by an application-specific approach is dimensioned data. Robot programs typically manage a substantial amount of dimensioned data. However, existing robot programming tools do not directly support the description and manipulation of dimensioned quantities. A new system is presented for managing dimensioned data in robot software. The design provides a new primitive data type to support dimensioned data. Its unique syntax improves program readability and writability. Dimensional consistency is automatically checked by the system and any errors are reported, significantly easing the debugging of dimensioned data and improving the reliability of robot software. The data type is evaluated by common criteria for evaluating programming languages and a small user study, and is found to be an improvement.