A First Course on Software Architectures for Robotics

1. Auflage 2027
ISBN: 978-1-041-40239-8
Verlag: CRC Press

Buch, Englisch, 240 Seiten, Format (B × H): 210 mm x 297 mm

This coursebook teaches robotics engineers how to design, analyze, and evolve the software behind real robotic systems, developing a coherent, architectural way of thinking that considers how combinations of factors determine whether a robot's software is robust, maintainable, and able to scale.

The book pairs theoretical chapters with hands-on practical exercises of increasing complexity, using ROS 2 throughout as a concrete, widely adopted vehicle for architectural reasoning. Beyond isolated algorithms and tool-specific tutorials, the authors explain the implications behind decisions about components, communication, concurrency, state, and time. Readers progress from middleware fundamentals, reactive execution, and spatial representation through hybrid deliberative architectures, finite-state machines, and behavior trees, arriving at a synthesis chapter that compares reference architectures such as Nav2, PlanSys2, and EasyNav alongside a deep dive into ROS 2 executors, lifecycle, and real-time behavior. The practical track mirrors this progression, building toward an open-ended capstone in which students design and justify a complete mission-task-capability architecture of their own.

Ideal for a Bachelor’s degree program in Software Robotics Engineering, or for personal development within industry settings, the book provides a framework for reasoning that will enable future and early-stage professionals to tackle, design, and improve real-world robotic systems with confidence.

A range of online resources can be found at https://github.com/IntelligentRoboticsLabs/ASR-Software.

Zielgruppe

Professional Practice & Development and Undergraduate Advanced

Autoren/Hrsg.

Martín Rico, Francisco

Pérez-Rodríguez, Rodrigo

Fachgebiete

• Mathematik | Informatik EDV | Informatik Informatik Künstliche Intelligenz
• Technische Wissenschaften Elektronik | Nachrichtentechnik Elektronik Robotik
• Mathematik | Informatik EDV | Informatik Programmierung | Softwareentwicklung Software Engineering

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Part 1: Theory of Software Architectures for Robots 1. Software Architecture in Robotics 2. Execution and Basic Communication: Nodes, Data, and Events 3. Robotic Perception and Spatial Representation 4. Deliberative and Hybrid Architectures: Layers and World Models 5. Finite State Machines 6. Behavior Trees 7. Analysis of Reference Architectures and Deep ROS 2 Part 2: Software Architecture Projects for Robots 8. ROS 2 Development Environment 9. Event-Driven Reactive Execution 10. Perception, Tracking, and Avoidance 11. Mission Coordination with FSMs 12. Mission Coordination with Behavior Trees 13. Mission–Task–Capability Architecture

Über Autor(innen)

Francisco Martín Rico is a Full Professor at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos and leads the Intelligent Robotics Lab. His research focuses on robot software architectures, planning, and navigation. He has applied this expertise in national and European research projects, as well as in major international robotics competitions, including RoboCup.

Rodrigo Pérez-Rodríguez is an Associate Professor at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos. His research focuses on modular, flexible, and scalable software architectures for social and autonomous robots. Primarily applied to elderly care preventing disability, he has led several national and international research projects and authored multiple scientific publications in the area. He has also participated in major international robotics competitions such as RoboCup.