RoboticsLanguage 0.3.21

The Robotics Language

The Robotics Language (RoL) is an open extensible domain-specific (or model-based) language for robotics. RoL is an abstraction on top of ROS to efficiently and quickly develop ROS applications using a mathematics-centred language. RoL generates ROS c++ nodes, HTML interfaces, or any other elements.

The base RoL language has a structure similar to standard high-level programming languages

# A simple topic echo node
node(
  name:'example echo',

  definitions: block(
    # the input signal
    echo_in in Signals(Strings, rosTopic:'/echo/in', onNew: echo_out = echo_in ),

    # the echo signal
    echo_out in Signals(Strings, rosTopic:'/echo/out')
  )
)

The power of the RoL is in its ability to integrate mini-abstraction languages:

# A finite state machine
node(
  name:'example state machine',

  definitions: block(

    # a mini-language: code is defined within `<{ }>`
    FiniteStateMachine<{

      name:machine
      initial:idle

      (idle)-start->(running)-stop->(idle)
      (running)-error->(fault)-reset->(idle)
      (idle)-calibration->(calibrate)-reset->(idle)

    }>,

    # the start signal
    start in Signals(Empty, rosTopic:'/start', onNew: machine.fire('start')),

    # the stop signal
    stop in Signals(Empty, rosTopic:'/stop', onNew: machine.fire('stop'))

  )
)

The RoL is in practice an open compiler where users can develop their own languages by means of plug-ins. The RoL is programmed in python and uses XML as the internal abstract syntax tree.