RAFCON: a Graphical Tool for Task Programming and Mission Control
This tool addresses the need for efficient programming of heterogeneous robotic systems in fields like service, rescue, industry, and space robotics, though it appears incremental as it builds on existing state machine concepts.
The authors tackled the problem of programming complex robotic tasks by developing RAFCON, a graphical tool that uses hierarchical state machines for task programming and mission control, demonstrated by enabling a mobile robot to solve all challenges autonomously in the SpaceBotCamp competition.
There are many application fields for robotic systems including service robotics, search and rescue missions, industry and space robotics. As the scenarios in these areas grow more and more complex, there is a high demand for powerful tools to efficiently program heterogeneous robotic systems. Therefore, we created RAFCON, a graphical tool to develop robotic tasks and to be used for mission control by remotely monitoring the execution of the tasks. To define the tasks, we use state machines which support hierarchies and concurrency. Together with a library concept, even complex scenarios can be handled gracefully. RAFCON supports sophisticated debugging functionality and tightly integrates error handling and recovery mechanisms. A GUI with a powerful state machine editor makes intuitive, visual programming and fast prototyping possible. We demonstrated the capabilities of our tool in the SpaceBotCamp national robotic competition, in which our mobile robot solved all exploration and assembly challenges fully autonomously. It is therefore also a promising tool for various RoboCup leagues.