Robots that support humans by performing useful tasks (a.k.a., service robots) are booming worldwide. In contrast to industrial robots, the development of service robots comes with severe software engineering challenges, since they require high levels of robustness and autonomy to operate in highly heterogeneous environments. As a domain with critical safety implications, service robotics faces a need for sound software development practices. In this paper, we present the first large-scale empirical study to assess the state of the art and practice of robotics software engineering. We conducted 18 semi-structured interviews with industrial practitioners working in 15 companies from 9 different countries and a survey with 156 respondents (from 26 countries) from the robotics domain. Our results provide a comprehensive picture of (i) the practices applied by robotics industrial and academic practitioners, including processes, paradigms, languages, tools, frameworks, and reuse practices, (ii) the distinguishing characteristics of robotics software engineering, and (iii) recurrent challenges usually faced, together with adopted solutions. The paper concludes by discussing observations, derived hypotheses, and proposed actions for researchers and practitioners.

中文翻译：

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机器人软件工程：从服务机器人领域看

通过执行有用的任务来支持人类的机器人（又名服务机器人）在全球范围内蓬勃发展。与工业机器人相比，服务机器人的发展面临着严峻的软件工程挑战，因为它们需要高度的鲁棒性和自主性才能在高度异构的环境中运行。作为一个具有关键安全意义的领域，服务机器人需要完善的软件开发实践。在本文中，我们提出了第一个大规模实证研究，以评估机器人软件工程的最新技术和实践。我们对来自 9 个不同国家的 15 家公司的工业从业者进行了 18 次半结构化访谈，并对机器人领域的 156 名受访者（来自 26 个国家）进行了调查。我们的结果提供了 (i) 机器人工业和学术从业者应用的实践的全面图景，包括流程、范式、语言、工具、框架和重用实践，(ii) 机器人软件工程的显着特征，以及 (iii)通常面临的反复挑战以及已采取的解决方案。本文最后讨论了观察结果、推导出的假设以及为研究人员和从业人员提出的行动建议。