2nd International Workshop on Robotics Software Engineering (RoSE’19)

  • Co-located with ICSE 2019
  • in Montréal, Canada
  • May 27, 2019

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Theme & Goals

Robotics is one of the most challenging domains for software engineering. Deploying even simple applications requires integrating solutions from experts of various domains, including navigation, path planning, manipulation, localization, human-robot interaction, etc. Integration of modules contributed by respective domain experts is one of the key challenges in engineering software-centric systems, yet only one of the cross-cutting software concerns crucial to robotics. As robots often operate in dynamic, partially observable environments additional challenges include adaptability, robustness, safety, and security.

The goal of RoSE 2019 is to bring together researchers from participating domains with practitioners to identify new frontiers in robotics software engineering, discuss challenges raised by real-world applications, and transfer latest insights from research to industry. RoSE 2019 will solicit contributions from both academic and industrial participants, thus fostering active synergy between the two communities.

Topics of Interest

RoSE 2019 seeks contributions addressing, but not limited to, the following topics related to robotics software engineering:

  • Analysis of challenges in robotic software engineering
  • Architectures that lead to reusable robotic software
  • Challenges for defining and integrating domain-specific languages for the design of robotic systems
  • Continuous integration and deployment in robotics
  • Identification and analysis of design principles promoting quality of service (e.g., performance, energy efficiency)
  • Engineering the collaboration of multiple (heterogeneous) robots
  • Machine learning for safety-critical robotic systems
  • Metrics to measure non-functional properties (e.g., robustness, availability, etc.) and their application in robotic software
  • Best practices in engineering robotic software
  • Variability, modularity, and reusability in robotic software
  • Validation and verification of robotic software
  • Processes and tools supporting the engineering and development of robotic systems
  • State-of-the-art research projects, innovative ideas, and field-based studies in robotic software engineering
  • Lessons learned in the engineering and deployment of large-scale, real-world integrated robot

Keynote

We are happy to have Prof. Giovanni Beltrame of the Department of Computer and Software Engineering of the École Polytechnique de Montréal giving a keynote talk on “Gathering swarms: programming large-scale robotic networks”.

Abstract

We are currently on the verge of a new technology revolution—autonomous robots are becoming more and more present in our everyday lives. From drones to self-driving cars, these systems are becoming pervasive, and are acting as an enabling technology for many kinds of safety-critical applications. Examples of robotic applications are search-and-rescue operations, industrial and agricultural inspection, autonomous car driving, aerial mapping, monument digitization, and surgery. Despite this ambitious vision, the major achievements in the area of swarm robotics still consist of algorithms that tackle specific problem instances, and the performance of these algorithms strongly depends upon the context in which they are developed. Given this state of affairs, reproducing results and comparing algorithms is difficult, hindering the development of swarm robotics as a whole. This talk will provide an overview of the current challenges and potential solutions that aim at programming (and maintaining) thousands of robots in a safe and manageable way. In particular, the presentation will showcase new languages, paradigms, and methods for the development and deployment of complex swarm behaviors, as well as giving practical examples in the area of disaster response and space exploration.

Vita

Giovanni Beltrame obtained his Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from Politecnico di Milano, in 2006 after which he worked as microelectronics engineer at the European Space Agency on a number of projects spanning from radiation-tolerant systems to computer-aided design. In 2010 he moved to Montreal, Canada where he is currently Professor at Polytechnique Montreal with the Computer and Software Engineering Department. He was also Visiting Professor at the University of Tübingen in 2017/2018. Dr. Beltrame directs the MIST Lab, with more than 30 students and postdocs under his supervision. He has completed several projects in collaboration with industry and government agencies in the area of disaster response and space exploration. He is the principal investigator for the first university-made CubeSat in Quebec, and scientific director of the Quebec Nanosatellite Constellation project. His research interests include modeling and design of embedded systems, artificial intelligence, and robotics, on which he has published research in top journals and conferences.

Workshop Program

Session 1 (09:00 - 10:30)

  • 09:00 - 09:15: Opening by the organizers.
  • 09:15 - 10:15 Keynote by Prof. Giovanni Beltrame: Gathering swarms: programming large-scale robotic networks.
  • 10:15 - 10:30: Sergio García, Claudio Menghi and Patrizio Pelliccione:
    MAPmAKER: Performing Multi-Robot LTL Planning Under Uncertainty.

Session 2 (11:00 - 12:30)

  • 11:00 - 11:15: Piergiuseppe Mallozzi, Ezequiel Gustavo Castellano, Patrizio Pelliccione, Gerardo Schneider and Kenji Tei: A Runtime Monitoring Framework to Enforce Invariants on Reinforcement Learning Agents Exploring Complex Environments.
  • 11:15 - 11:30: David Shepherd, Nicholas A. Kraft and Patrick Francis: Visualizing the “Hidden” Variables in Robot Programs.
  • 11:30 - 11:45: Kaushik Madala, Hyunsook Do and Daniel Aceituna: Exposing Off-Nominal Behaviors in Multi-Robot Coordination.
  • 11:45 - 12:00: Simos Gerasimou, Nicholas Matragkas and Radu Calinescu: Towards Systematic Engineering of Collaborative Heterogeneous Robotic Systems.
  • 12:00 - 12:15: Nico Ritschel, Reid Holmes, Ronald Garcia and David Shepherd: Novice-Friendly Multi-Armed Robotics Programming.
  • 12:15 - 12:30 Takeshi Ohkawa, Yuhei Sugata, Harumi Watanabe, Nobuhiko Ogura, Kanemitsu Ootsu and Takashi Yokota: High Level Synthesis of ROS Protocol Interpretation and Communication Circuit for FPGA.

Session 3 (14:00 - 15:30)

  • Interactive break-out session

Session 4 (16:00 - 17:30)

  • Presentation of break-out session results
  • Discussion
  • Next steps for RoSE

Workshop Dinner (starting 19:30)

Submission Guidelines

Prospective participants are invited to submit

  • research papers presenting novel contributions on advancing software engineering in robotics (max. 8 pages);
  • challenge showcase papers describing robotics challenges considered insufficiently addressed from an industry perspective (max. 6 pages);
  • lessons learned papers describing lessons learned in the collaboration between the two communities of software engineering and robotics (max. 6 pages);
  • vision papers on the future of software engineering in robotics (max. 4 pages);
  • tool and project papers on software engineering in robotics (max. 4 pages).

Workshop papers must follow the ICSE 2019 Format and Submission Guideline, but will use a single blind submission process. All submitted papers will be reviewed on the basis of technical quality, relevance, significance, and clarity by the program committee. All workshop papers should be submitted electronically in PDF format through the EasyChair workshop website. Accepted papers will become part of the workshop proceedings.

Important Dates

  • Workshop paper submissions due: February 1, 2019 We are providing a grace period of 4 days for the authors who submit a draft of their papers by the deadline. So, the authors who submit their paper draft by the 1st of February (AoE) will have until the 5th of February (AoE) to polish and improve their paper. The submission of the paper draft by the 1st of February (AoE) is strictly required.
  • Notification to authors: March 1, 2019
  • Camera-ready copies due: March 15, 2019

Organizing Committee

Program Committee

  • Darko Bozhinoski, Universite Libre de Bruxelles
  • Arne Nordmann, Robert Bosch GmbH
  • Patrizio Pelliccione, Chalmers University of Technology
  • Juergen Dingel, Queen’s University
  • Andrzej Wasowski, IT University of Copenhagen
  • Rogardt Heldal, HLV
  • Davide Di Ruscio, Università degli Studi dell’Aquila
  • Claudio Menghi, Chalmers University of Technology, University of Gothenburg
  • Jana Tumova, KTH Royal Institute of Technology
  • Javier Camara, University of York
  • Christian Schlegel, University of Applied Sciences
  • Holger Giese, Hasso Plattner Institute at the University of Potsdam
  • Ivan Ruchkin, Institute for Software Research, Carnegie Mellon University
  • Ulrik Schultz, University of Southern Denmark
  • Sebastian Wrede, CoR-Lab, Bielefeld University
  • David Garlan, Carnegie Mellon University
  • Davide Brugali, Università degli Studi di Bergamo
  • John-Paul Ore, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
  • Ettore Merlo, Ecole Polytechnique of Montreal
  • Daniel Sykes, Ocado Technology
  • Neil Ernst, University of Victoria
  • Geoffrey Biggs, AIST, Tsukuba, Japan
  • Simos Gerasimou, York University
  • Alwin Hoffmann, University of Augsburg

Call for Papers