Graphical Programming and the Development of Construction Robots

摘要

Complexity, multidisciplinarity, and algorithmic inherency are characteristics of construction robotic systems. Controlling the development process of such systems requires the adoption of a development model based on Systems Engineering principles. The software-development process is an important aspect of the system, which requires a development environment that can cope with this complexity. Using traditional programming languages (textual) requires highly trained programmers for this purpose, which involves high cost and long development time. In the present work Graphical Programming (iconic) is used as the software development environment because it is highly modular and allows concurrent development, both of which save on time and cost. It also enables nonexpert programmers to produce software capable of coping with the system complexity. A detailed case study of the software development process for an existing tool manipulation robot known as Starlifter is presented. Use of the LabVIEW package is demonstrated for both onboard system control and off-line project management.