Differently from other regions in the Planet, since 2010, in Latin America textual programming language (Rhinoscripting) is being replaced by its visual equivalent (Grasshopper). This is a consequence of our preference for an interactive platform, and because our design problems are not as complex, so we aim to control geometrical problems or aspects belonging to an product scale instead of an architectural one. Problems emerging when creating code could be improved by modifying and reusing existing solutions as a starting point, since learning would not be centered in the object but in the process of creating it, using a suitable instrument.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 17-20, 1994 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / The advantages of using visual programming to create, modify, test and display a telemetry stream are presented. The failure to fully deploy the high-gain antenna of the Galileo spacecraft has resulted in a software redesign of the computer systems onboard the spacecraft to support the low-gain antenna mission. Visual programming software is being used to test new algorithms as part of the ground support for the spacecraft Test Bed. It is very important that any new software algorithms be thoroughly tested on the ground before any modifications are made to the spacecraft. The advantage of using a visual programming language (LabVIEW, National Instruments) is that it provides easy visibility into the decommutation process that is being modified by the Galileo programming support team. In addition, utilities were written using visual programming to allow real-time data display and error detection. A data acquisition board is used to clock in the actual synchronous telemetry signal from the Test Bed at rates below 10 kHz. The time to write and modify the code using visual programming is significantly less (by a factor of 4 to 10) than using text-based code. The gains in productivity are attributed to the communication among the customer, developer, and computer that are facilitated by the visual syntax of the language.

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Title: Visual Programming Backend for a Mobile Robot Author: Bc. Ondřej Staněk Department: The Department of Software Engineering Supervisor: RNDr. David Obdržálek, Ph.D. Supervisor's e-mail address: David.Obdrzalek@mff.cuni.cz Abstract: In this work, the author designs and implements a solution for programming small mobile robots using a visual programming language. A suitable visual programming front-end is selected and back-end layers are created that allow execution of the program in a mobile robot. The author designs and implements a virtual machine that runs alongside the original robot firmware on an 8-bit microcontroller with limited resources. A code generator layer compiles the visual representation of the program into a sequence of bytecode instructions that is interpreted on board of the mobile robot. The solution supports typical features of procedural programming languages, in particular: variables, expressions, conditional statements, loops, static arrays, function calls and recursion. The emphasis is put on robustness of the implementation. To verify and maintain code quality, methods of automated software testing are used. Keywords: visual programming language, virtual machine, mobile robot, Blockly Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

This diploma thesis deals with a theoretical analysis, a design and an implementation of a programming framework in a virtual environment. Robots use sensors to gain information about the environment and they subsequently modify this environment as a result of an instruction code. The instructions are entered in a graphic form using a visual programming language. The analysis and the outline of this language is discussed in detail in this work as well. The last part describes editing and rendering of the virtual world in which the robots are moving, considering sample tasks of following a line and movement inside a maze according to the rules of the Micromouse competition. The thesis includes solution proposals for both tasks regarding the possibilities of the programming environment. The result of the work is a concept of the aforementioned components and their implementation and linking to a functional unit.

The purpose of this bachelor thesis was to present a solution for how a graphical programming language with a functional mindset can be constructed with the help of inspiration from functional programming. An artefact was created by using design science as a research methodology and has in several iterations gone through development and testing to reassure the outcome works as intended. The graphical programming language which has been developed is a language that allows the programmer to code in depth, functions are written as blocks inside blocks and the language is made compact. A code structure in a JSON-format was developed at the same time as G#, allowing it to be presented in a texted data format. The purpose of the JSON-format was to enable execution of G# and the transformation to a text-based programming language. Implications can be made from this study by learning about how a graphical programming language can be built from scratch and what difficulties needs to be tackled to get a result that works as intended. G# was developed to only support a few selected and commonly used functions in programming due to time limitations. The final version of G# in this study can do calculations, handle lists and perform less complex algorithms. Under the development of G#’s graphical functions, the free tool Draw.io was used. Unknowingly from the start, Draw’s limitations made it not perform as expected. Therefore, it is recommended to investigate which available tools are most suited for the construction of the graphical functions before development begins. / Syftet med examensarbetet var att med hjälp av inspiration från funktionell programmering, presentera en lösning på hur ett nytt grafiskt programmeringsspråk med ett funktionellt djup och tänk kan konstrueras. Med hjälp av designbaserad forskning har en artefakt tagits fram som genomgått iterationer av utveckling och testning för att uppnå ett resultat som fungerar som tänkt. Det grafiska språket som tagits fram kallas för G# och är ett språk som tillåter programmeraren att programmera på djupet, funktioner skrivs som block inuti block och språket blir kompakt. Tillhörande G# så konstruerades en struktur i ett JSON-format för hur funktioner i G# kan representeras i ett textat dataformat. Syftet med JSON-formatet var att möjliggöra exekvering av G# och transformering till ett textbaserat programmeringsspråk. Av denna studie kan det dras lärdomar kring hur ett programmeringsspråk kan byggas upp från grunden och vilka svårigheter som måste tacklas för att få ett resultat som fungerar. På grund av begränsning av tid så utvecklades endast vanligt förekommande funktioner inom programmering till G#, språkets slutversion kan göra beräkningar, sköta hantering av listor och utföra enklare algoritmer. Vid utvecklingen av G# användes verktyget Draw.io för att konstruera funktioner. Verktyget var begränsat i funktionalitet och presterade inte enligt förväntan. Därför borde en undersökning som svarar på vilket typ av verktyg som är mest lämpligt för utvecklingen av de grafiska funktionerna göras innan utvecklingen börjar.

This thesis presents VERTIPH, a visual programming language for the development of image processing algorithms on FPGA hardware. The research began with an examination of the whole design cycle, with a view to identifying requirements for implementing image processing on FPGAs. Based on this analysis, a design process was developed where a selected software algorithm is matched to a hardware architecture tailor made for its implementation. The algorithm and architecture are then transformed into an FPGA suitable design. It was found that in most cases the most efficient mapping for image processing algorithms is to use a streamed processing approach. This constrains how data is presented and requires most existing algorithms to be extensively modified. Therefore, the resultant designs are heavily streamed and pipelined. A visual notation was developed to complement this design process, as both streaming and pipelining can be well represented by data flow visual languages. The notation has three views each of which represents and supports a different part of the design process. An architecture view gives an overview of the design's main blocks and their interconnections. A computational view represents lower-level details by representing each block by a set of computational expressions and low-level controls. This includes a novel visual representation of pipelining that simplifies latency analysis, multiphase design, priming, flushing and stalling, and the detection of sequencing errors. A scheduling view adds a state machine for high-level control of processing blocks. This extended state objects to allow for the priming and flushing of pipelined operations. User evaluations of an implementation of the key parts of this language (the architecture view and the computational view) found that both were generally good visualisations and aided in design (especially the type interface, pipeline and control notations). The user evaluations provided several suggestions for the improvement of the language, and in particular the evaluators would have preferred to use the diagrams as a verification tool for a textual representation rather than as the primary data capture mechanism. A cognitive dimensions analysis showed that the language scores highly for thirteen of the twenty dimensions considered, particularly those related to making details of the design clearer to the developer.

This thesis presents VERTIPH, a visual programming language for the development of image processing algorithms on FPGA hardware. The research began with an examination of the whole design cycle, with a view to identifying requirements for implementing image processing on FPGAs. Based on this analysis, a design process was developed where a selected software algorithm is matched to a hardware architecture tailor made for its implementation. The algorithm and architecture are then transformed into an FPGA suitable design. It was found that in most cases the most efficient mapping for image processing algorithms is to use a streamed processing approach. This constrains how data is presented and requires most existing algorithms to be extensively modified. Therefore, the resultant designs are heavily streamed and pipelined. A visual notation was developed to complement this design process, as both streaming and pipelining can be well represented by data flow visual languages. The notation has three views each of which represents and supports a different part of the design process. An architecture view gives an overview of the design's main blocks and their interconnections. A computational view represents lower-level details by representing each block by a set of computational expressions and low-level controls. This includes a novel visual representation of pipelining that simplifies latency analysis, multiphase design, priming, flushing and stalling, and the detection of sequencing errors. A scheduling view adds a state machine for high-level control of processing blocks. This extended state objects to allow for the priming and flushing of pipelined operations. User evaluations of an implementation of the key parts of this language (the architecture view and the computational view) found that both were generally good visualisations and aided in design (especially the type interface, pipeline and control notations). The user evaluations provided several suggestions for the improvement of the language, and in particular the evaluators would have preferred to use the diagrams as a verification tool for a textual representation rather than as the primary data capture mechanism. A cognitive dimensions analysis showed that the language scores highly for thirteen of the twenty dimensions considered, particularly those related to making details of the design clearer to the developer.

This thesis presents VERTIPH, a visual programming language for the development of image processing algorithms on FPGA hardware. The research began with an examination of the whole design cycle, with a view to identifying requirements for implementing image processing on FPGAs. Based on this analysis, a design process was developed where a selected software algorithm is matched to a hardware architecture tailor made for its implementation. The algorithm and architecture are then transformed into an FPGA suitable design. It was found that in most cases the most efficient mapping for image processing algorithms is to use a streamed processing approach. This constrains how data is presented and requires most existing algorithms to be extensively modified. Therefore, the resultant designs are heavily streamed and pipelined. A visual notation was developed to complement this design process, as both streaming and pipelining can be well represented by data flow visual languages. The notation has three views each of which represents and supports a different part of the design process. An architecture view gives an overview of the design's main blocks and their interconnections. A computational view represents lower-level details by representing each block by a set of computational expressions and low-level controls. This includes a novel visual representation of pipelining that simplifies latency analysis, multiphase design, priming, flushing and stalling, and the detection of sequencing errors. A scheduling view adds a state machine for high-level control of processing blocks. This extended state objects to allow for the priming and flushing of pipelined operations. User evaluations of an implementation of the key parts of this language (the architecture view and the computational view) found that both were generally good visualisations and aided in design (especially the type interface, pipeline and control notations). The user evaluations provided several suggestions for the improvement of the language, and in particular the evaluators would have preferred to use the diagrams as a verification tool for a textual representation rather than as the primary data capture mechanism. A cognitive dimensions analysis showed that the language scores highly for thirteen of the twenty dimensions considered, particularly those related to making details of the design clearer to the developer.