Graphical State Space Programming: A visual programming paradigm for robot task specification

We describe a framework that combines a software development paradigm, a software visualization technique, and a tool for robot programming. This infrastructure is called "Graphical State Space Programming" (GSSP), and allows robot application programs to be decomposed and visualized within state-dependent views. Our approach simplifies and expedites the programming process for robot routines and behaviors, and we examine the performance improvement that ensues through a set of controlled user studies. The usability and effectiveness of GSSP are also illustrated using a field demonstration with an aerial robotic vehicle.