A Model-Driven Engineering Approach for ROS using Ontological Semantics

TL;DR

This paper introduces ReApp, an ontology-driven, model-based engineering approach for ROS robotics software that enhances component reuse, simplifies development, and integrates semantic technologies for industrial applications.

Contribution

It presents a novel ReApp architecture combining model-driven engineering with ontologies to improve development and reuse of ROS-based robotic software components.

Findings

Demonstrates the viability of ontology-based component discovery.

Shows improved development workflow with integrated tools.

Validates the approach through initial results on software reuse.

Abstract

This paper presents a novel ontology-driven software engineering approach for the development of industrial robotics control software. It introduces the ReApp architecture that synthesizes model-driven engineering with semantic technologies to facilitate the development and reuse of ROS-based components and applications. In ReApp, we show how different ontological classification systems for hardware, software, and capabilities help developers in discovering suitable software components for their tasks and in applying them correctly. The proposed model-driven tooling enables developers to work at higher abstraction levels and fosters automatic code generation. It is underpinned by ontologies to minimize discontinuities in the development workflow, with an integrated development environment presenting a seamless interface to the user. First results show the viability and synergy of the selected approach when searching for or developing software with reuse in mind.