Software reuse across robotic platforms: Limiting the effects of diversity

Robots have diverse capabilities and complex interactions with their \ud environment. Software development for robotic platforms is time consuming\ud due to the complex nature of the tasks to be performed. Such an environment\ud demands sound software engineering practices to produce high quality\ud software. However software engineering in the robotics domain fails\ud to facilitate any significant level of software reuse or portability. \ud \ud This paper identifies the major issues limiting software reuse in the \ud robotics domain. Lack of standardisation, diversity of robotic platforms,\ud and the subtle effects of environmental interaction all contribute to this \ud problem. It is then shown that software components, fuzzy logic, \ud and related techniques can be used together to address this\ud problem. While complete software reuse is not possible, it is \ud demonstrated that significant levels of software reuse can be obtained.\ud \ud Without an acceptable level of reuse or portability, software engineering in the\ud robotics domain will not be able to meet the demands of a rapidly \ud developing field. The work presented in this paper demonstrates a\ud method for supporting software reuse across robotic platforms and\ud hence facilitating improved software engineering practices