Simple concurrency for robotics with the Roboscoop framework

Abstract

Concurrency is inherent to robots, and using concurrency in robotics can greatly enhance performance of the robotics applications. So far, however, the use of concurrency in robotics has been limited and cumbersome. This paper presents Roboscoop, a new robotics framework based on Simple Concurrent Object Oriented Programming (SCOOP). SCOOP excludes data races by construction, thereby eliminating a major class of concurrent programming errors. Roboscoop utilizes SCOOP's concurrency and synchronization mechanisms for coordination in robotics applications. We demonstrate Roboscoop's simplicity by comparing Roboscoop to existing middlewares and evaluate Roboscoop's usability by employing it in education.