Controlling robots with an english-like high-level hierarchical command language (HIROB)

To facilitate expedient communication with robots, a very-high level hierarchical robot command language (HIROB) has been designed and implemented. HIROB uses the full and comprehensive syntax of the English imperative, allowing users to control a robot without the need of learning an esoteric programming language. A Parser/Scanner/Recognizer (PSR) performs a lexical analysis of a HIROB command stream, and identifies which portions of the command stream already exist as fully defined procedures in the files of the Procedure Management System (PMS). Those portions which do not exist must be defined using either existing HIROB procedures (English phrases), or by using the primitive commands of the low-level robot command language (LOROB). A high-level command cannot be executed until all of its hierarchical sub-commands have been fully defined. An intermediate language MIDROB is used to provide programming structures to control the logic flow within HIROB procedures. A user-friendly editor has been incorporated into the PMS to allow convenient creation, modification, and testing of HIROB commands.