1. A DSL for the
visualization of Multi-
Robot Systems
Alexandre Bergel (PLEIAD, University of Chile), Serge
Stinckwich (IRD,Vietnam)

2. Problem statement
• Visualization as an aid to design complex
multi-robots algorithms
• Express what need to be visualize in the
context of the domain of the user (robotics
experts here) and in a declarative way
• Adapt the visualization&model during the
simulation (aka. exploratory modeling)

4. Mondrian
• Interactive information visualization engine
• Visualizations can be specified by script
• Embedded Domain-Specific Language
(Smalltalk is the host language)
• Drawback: only static structure

5. From Mondrian to Calder

6. Calder: DSL for
MRS visualization
• Visualize dynamic structures (graphs)
dynamically and interactively
• Interact with individuals nodes and graph as
a whole
• Currently applied to multi-robot systems

7. Smalltalk syntax in a
nutshell
• Everything is an object
• All the computation is done through
objects sending messages to other objects
• 4 types of expressions: literals, variables,
messages and blocks, 11 AST nodes
• Easy to build new DSL + tools to design
your own syntax (Helvetia)

8. Message sending
• Unary message:
view treeLayout
• Binary message:
2+3
• Keywords message:
myArray at: 1 put: 5

9. Blocks
•[3+4]
•[:x | x +1]
•[:x | x +1 ] value: 3 => 4

10. Basic Mondrian
vocabulary
• Nodes
• Edges
• Layout
• Shapes

11. view nodes: classes.
view edges: classes
from: [:each | each superclass]
to: [:each | each].
view treeLayout.

12. view nodes: classes.
view shape rectangle
height:[:each | each
numberOfMethods].
view edges: classes
from:[:each | each superclass]
to:[:each | each].
view treeLayout.

13. Demonstration 1

14. Application: visualization of
MRS coverage algorithms
Nikolaus Corell, Jonathan Bachrach, DanielVickery and Daniela
Rus,“Ad-hoc Wireless Network Coverage with Networked
Robots that Cannot Localize”, ICRA’09, Kobe, Japan

15. Demonstration 2

16. Conclusion&perspectives
• More general than just robotics: can be used to
visualize every dynamic graph of objects
• At the moment, only visualization. Behaviour of
robots can’t be changed very easily.
• Construct a vocabulary suitable to MRS
visualization (motion, perception, ...) in an
iterative way
• Connect to a real robotic simulation engine