The 7th International Workshop on Domain-Specific Languages and Models for Robotic Systems (DSLRob-19) In conjunction with IRC 2019

The overwhelming push towards the design of robotics software platforms such as ROS, Orocos, SmartSoft, and OpenRTM has been followed by a tremendous pull from industry towards composition-oriented approaches, as these pave the way towards a robotics (software) ecosystem with all its advantages. Domain-Specific Languages (DSLs) and Model-driven Engineering (MDE) are key to this approach, and are growing areas of interest in the robotics research community. They have been instrumental for resolving complex issues in a wide range of domains (e.g., AI, networked, distributed, service and modular robotics, automation, control, and vision) and have the potential for significantly facilitating how robots are programmed.

A DSL is a programming language dedicated to a particular problem domain that offers specific notations and abstractions, which, at the same time, decrease the coding complexity and increase programmer productivity within that domain. Models offer a high-level way for domain users to specify the functionality of their system at the right level of abstraction using MDE. DSLs and models have historically been used for programming complex systems. They have however also garnered interest as a separate field of study; this workshop investigates DSLs and models for robotics.

DSLs and models have the potential for significantly facilitating how software for robots is developed and managed. Robotic systems blend hardware and software in a holistic way that intrinsically raises many crosscutting concerns (concurrency, uncertainty, time constraints, etc.), for which reason, traditional general-purpose languages often lead to a poor fit between the language features and the implementation requirements. DSLs and models offer a powerful, systematic way to overcome this problem. The DSLRob series of workshops is devoted to promoting the systematic use of DSLs in robotic systems; DSLRob is based on a combination of high-quality reviews (all DSLRob workshops have relied on a formal peer-review process and published formal open-access proceedings on arxiv.org) and a format that ensures time for interactive discussions (the last edition engaged over 30 researchers in lively debates).

An invited talk will be given by Prof. Dr. Christian Schlegel, Hochschule Ulm, Germany, Technical Lead of the EU H2020 project RobMoSys (http://robmosys.eu/). DLRob is supported by IEEE RAS Technical Committee on Software Engineering for Robotics and Automation (TC-SOFT).

Topics of Interest

  • DSLs and models targeting specific application domains, such as service robots, automation, biomedical, autonomous vehicles (land, sea, air), and modular robots.
  • DSLs and models addressing specific technical challenges, such as system integration, AI, sensor/actuator networks, distributed and cloud robotics, perception, sensor information, human robot interaction, uncertainty, modeling of physical systems, and real-time constraints.
  • DSLs and models providing alternative programming models, such as reactive behaviors, composition of behaviors, motion description languages (MDL), and cooperative robotics.
  • Models to represent robotics software architectures and their variability.
  • Runtime models for reasoning and dynamic adaptation.
  • Surveys of the use and maturity of DSLs and models in specific sub-domains of robotics.
  • Tool support and frameworks for describing and manipulating DSLs and models for robotic systems.
  • Code generation and code transformation for robotics systems.
  • Frameworks to combine DSLs and models in a uniform manner.
  • Case studies on the use of DSLs and models in advanced robotics systems.
  • Benchmarks to compare the use of DSLs versus the use of general-purpose programming languages.
  • Programming languages in the context of robotic systems, such as dynamic languages, languages to teach robotics, and visual languages.
  • Insights into how to link to models and tools in related relevant domains.

Intended Audience

The intended audience is anyone with expertise and interest in the key aspects related to systematic robotics software engineering, including both industry and academia, from novices to seniors, domain experts, robotic experts, software experts, and modeling experts etc. The workshop is of interest to them all as it explicitly focuses on techniques designed to moderate the links between all these different experts. Indeed, the DSLRob workshop has since its inception served to offer links between the different communities, such that they after the workshop know where these cross-sectional topics are being moderated and where they can contribute.

Submission Guidelines

The scientific programme of DSLRob’19 will be centered around poster sessions, posters will be evaluated based on abstracts, that will be published in a post-proceedings on arxiv. All submitted poster abstracts will be reviewed on the basis of relevance, significance, and clarity. At least two reviews for each abstract will be conducted. All poster abstracts should be submitted electronically in PDF format through EasyChair and should use the IEEE US letter format and should be between 1 and 4 pages. Accepted abstracts will appear in the DSLRob post-proceedings on arxiv (similar to previous DSLRob instances).

Organizing Committee

• Dr. Ulrik P. Schultz, Maersk Institute, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
• Prof. Dr. Christian Schlegel, Fakultät Informatik, Hochschule Ulm, Germany
• Dr. Serge Stinckwich, UCN & UMI UMMISCO 209 (IRD/UPMC), France

Program Committee
• Davide Brugali, University of Bergamo, Italy
• Alessandro di Fava, Pal Robotics, Spain
• Nico Hochgeschwender, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg
• Arne Nordmann, Robert Bosch GmbH, Germany
• Ingo Lütkebohle, Robert Bosch GmbH, Germany
• Sebastian Wrede, University of Bielefeld, Germany
• Andreas Wortmann, RWTH Aachen University, Germany
• Geoffrey Biggs, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Japan
• Alex Lotz, University of Applied Sciences, Ulm, Germany
• Dennis Stampfer, University of Applied Sciences Ulm, Germany
• Cristina Vicente-Chicote, Universidad de Extremadura, Spain
• Juan F. Inglés-Romero, Biometric Vox (BV), Spain

Contact
• Dr. Ulrik P. Schultz, ups@mmmi.sdu.dk