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Arrows, Robots, and Functional Reactive Programming

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volume 2638 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, page 159--187. Springer, Berlin, (2003)
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-540-44833-4_6

Abstract

Functional reactive programming, or FRP, is a paradigm for programming hybrid systems – i.e., systems containing a combination of both continuous and discrete components – in a high-level, declarative way. The key ideas in FRP are its notions of continuous, time-varying values, and time-ordered sequences of discrete events. Yampa is an instantiation of FRP as a domain-specific language embed- ded in Haskell. This paper describes Yampa in detail, and shows how it can be used to program a particular kind of hybrid system: a mobile robot. Because performance is critical in robotic programming, Yampa uses arrows (a generalization of monads) to create a disciplined style of programming with time-varying values that helps ensure that common kinds of time- and space-leaks do not occur. No previous experience with robots is expected of the reader, although a basic understanding of physics and calculus is assumed. No knowledge of arrows is required either, although we assume a good working knowledge of Haskell.

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