Task Description Language

NASA Tech Briefs, Dec 2005 by Simmons, Reid, Apfelbaum, David

Task Description Language (TDL) is an extension of the C programming language that enables programmers to quickly and easily write complex, concurrent computer programs for controlling real-time autonomous systems, including robots and spacecraft. TDL is based on earlier work (circa 1984 through 1989) on the Task Control Architecture (TCA). TDL provides syntactic support for hierarchical task-level control functions, including task decomposition, synchronization, execution monitoring, and exception handling. AJava-language-based compiler transforms TDL programs into pure C code that includes calls to a platform-independent task-control-management (TCM) library. TDL has been used to control and coordinate multiple heterogeneous robots in projects sponsored by NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). It has also been used in Brazil to control an autonomous airship and in Canada to control a robotic manipulator.

This program was written by Reid Simmons and David Apfelbaum of Carnegie Mellon University for Johnson Space Center. For further information, contact the Johnson Technology Transfer Office at (281) 483-3809.

MSC-23460