START: an application builder for industrial robotics

Abstract

The repair of nuclear power plants often necessitates the development of special robots which should be operational readily. This requires a software architecture which quickly permits the design of a controller for an entire telerobotic system in a minimum period of time. We have developed such a software architecture to facilitate the design of applications dealing with nonstandard robot systems and complex industrial processes. In this paper we describe the requirements for this architecture and how we address them.