YARA: a software framework enhancing service robot dependability

This paper focuses on the role of real-time operation support in mobile robot control architectures for service applications. We show that a control architecture with integrated real-time features ensures better performance in terms of accuracy in navigation and reactivity to external events, compared with an architecture where no provision for real-time has been made. We argue that proper consideration to real-time operation should be given in order to ensure safe, dependable robot operation in human-inhabited environments. Along the paper, we describe features of YARA, a software framework improving dependability of mobile robot architectures by virtue of its support for real-time operation.