Lambda in motion: Controlling robots with Haskell

Abstract. We present our experiences using a purely functional lan-guage, Haskell, in what has been traditionally the realm of low-level languages: robot control. Frob (Functional Robotics) is a domain-specic language embedded in Haskell for robot control. Frob is based on Func-tional Reactive Programming (FRP), as initially developed for Fran, a language of reactive animations. Frob presents the interaction between a robot and its stimuli, both onboard sensors and messages from other agents, in a purely functional manner. This serves as a basis for com-posable high level abstractions supporting complex control regimens in a concise and reusable manner.