Robot Programming
Published in Marina Indri, Roberto Oboe, Mechatronics and Robotics, 2020
Christian Schlegel, Dennis Stampfer, Alex Lotz, Matthias Lutz
A comprehensive overview on the rich history of different robotics software frameworks is impossible. Of course, each framework favors different needs and thus, fills a particular niche. However, they all can only be understood in their time, since they have been heavily influenced by at least (i) the technology available and accessible at that time, (ii) the kinds of robots and domains put into focus (mobile robots, manipulation, flying robots, etc.), (iii) whether the focus has been more on functionalities (typically driven by academia) or on (application) scenarios (typically driven by industry and also by competitions like Robocup), and even (iv) the (non)availability and (non)affordability of standard robot platforms (Pioneer mobile robot, NAO humanoid, Care-O-bot mobile robot with manipulator, the KUKA youBot, the FESTO Robotino, the Universal Robots UR-Arm and many others), cheap sensors (laser rangers, RGB-D cameras, tablets for user interfaces, etc.), ubiquitous and always available internet connections as well as enough and cheap computing power.