EUD-MARS: End-user development of model-driven adaptive robotics software systems

摘要

Empowering end-users to program robots is becoming more significant. Introducing software engineering principles into end-user programming could improve the quality of the developed software applications. For example,model-driven development improves technology independence and adaptive systems act upon changes in their context of use. However,end-users need to apply such principles in a non-daunting manner and without incurring a steep learning curve. This paper presents EUD-MARS that aims to provide end-users with a simple approach for developing model-driven adaptive robotics software. End-users include people like hobbyists and students who are not professional programmers but are interested in programming robots. EUD-MARS supports robots like hobby drones and educational humanoids that are available for end-users. It offers a tool for software developers and another one for end-users. We evaluated EUD-MARS from three perspectives. First,we used EUD-MARS to program different types of robots and assessed its visual programming language against existing design principles. Second,we asked software developers to use EUD-MARS to configure robots and obtained their feedback on strengths and points for improvement. Third,we observed how end-users explain and develop EUD-MARS programs,and obtained their feedback mainly on understandability,ease of programming,and desirability. These evaluations yielded positive indications of EUD-MARS.