The NEXUS open system for integrating robotic software

In this paper a framework for constructing flexible, robust and efficient software applications for robots is described. The basic concepts needed to integrate complex, multidisciplinary robot software architectures are identified, and the methods to achieve them are taken from different areas of research (programming languages, network communication systems, real-time systems, etc.). The result is an open software system called NEXUS which includes the basic characteristics needed for the integration of very different software modules, minimizing the effort of integration and maximizing the reusability, efficiency and robustness of the resulting software applications. This software has proven to be a basis for more sophisticated tools that help in reducing the cost of modifications to and the complexity of multidisciplinary projects, allowing highly structured and reusable designs to be implemented. Although it has been currently implemented for mobile robots, it is a sufficiently generic framework suitable for use in other control systems. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.