TaskForce: A Framework for Task Design and Execution

Abstract

Robotic task development typically requires iteration and exploration. Developers need tools for rapid prototyping ideas so that new algorithms can be explored on a system quickly and efficiently. TaskForce is a general-purpose algorithm design and execution framework that can serve as an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for complex task development. The goals of TaskForce are to reduce a developer’s time and overhead in managing and deploying a library of algorithms to a run-time system, and to provide a rich set of visualizations of the algorithms’ run-time state. Because TaskForce separates the development environment from the run-time environment, algorithms can be executed independent of the IDE. This allows for several external applications to interact concurrently with deployed TaskForce algorithms. While TaskForce has no specific ties to the domain of robotics, TaskForce has been used to develop several robotic demonstrations at NASA. This framework has improved the productivity of robot task developers by providing a suite of tools for algorithm development, algorithm deployment, and run-state visualization.