Creating ROS launch files using a visual programming interface

Visual programming is widely used to allow users to create programs by manipulating program elements graphically rather than by specifying them textually. It is intuitive and effective. However, it has only just begun to be used in robotic programming. For example, in the Robot Operating System (ROS) — a popular framework used for developing robotic applications — in order to run multiple modules together, a ROS launch file needs to be created and used. The files are in XML format and are difficult to write and understand for nontechnical users. To address this problem, in this paper, we propose a visual programming software tool that helps in the creation and visualization of these ROS launch files. This tool enables non-experienced operators to program a robot at a modular level. The tool is one among a set of software tools in the Robot Application Development and Operating Environment (RADOE), which aims to ease the development of robot applications in ROS.