Real-time software module design framework for building self-adaptive robotic systems

We proposed ReFrESH in our previous publication. It is a self-adaptive infrastructure aimed at managing the performance of multi-robot systems through dynamically diagnosing and maintaining unexpected issues of modules. To integrate ReFrESH and robotic application-level software more conveniently, it is necessary to develop a module design framework to support implementation of self-adaptive real-time software. To this end, based on the port-based object abstraction and port-automation theory, we propose the Extended Port-Based Object (E-PBO). E-PBO has two main advantages: (1) it builds the basis of a programming model to provide specific, yet flexible, guidelines to robotics application engineers for creating and integrating software modules; (2) it forms the basis of a self-adaption model to provide specific methods for evaluating the running task configuration and estimating the new but non-running task configuration (if required) without interfering with the running configuration. E-PBO has been incorporated into the Port-Based Object Real-Time Operating System (PBO/RT) and applied to a visual servoing robotic application, which is demonstrated here.