An efficient programming framework for socially assistive robots based on separation of robot behavior description from execution

One of the main challenges in socially assistive robotics is providing flexible and easy-to-use programming tools for users. Unlike other robots, designing socially assistive robots includes the subject-matter-experts (SMEs) from non-engineering disciplines. Therefore, the provided tools should be suitable for users with less programming experience. On the other hand, socially assistive robotic research involves field trials and user-centric studies, in which user and subject matter expert comments are used to improve the robot applications. Therefore, field programmability and customizability are key requirements. This paper presents a programming framework for socially assistive robots, which satisfies the above requirements; programmability by non-experts, field programmability and customizability. The proposed framework has been successfully implemented, deployed, and tested. Some robots with the framework presented in this paper are already in the commercialization pathway.