{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,21]],"date-time":"2025-11-21T18:07:16Z","timestamp":1763748436758,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":24,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,26]],"date-time":"2021-08-26T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1629936000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Robotics"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Software for robotic systems is becoming progressively more complex despite the existence of established software ecosystems like ROS, as the problems we delegate to robots become more and more challenging. Ensuring that the software works as intended is a crucial (but not trivial) task, although proper quality assurance processes are rarely seen in the open-source robotics community. This paper explains how we analyzed and improved a specialized path planner for steep-slope vineyards regarding its software dependability. The analysis revealed previously unknown bugs in the system, with a relatively low property specification effort. We argue that the benefits of similar quality assurance processes far outweigh the costs and should be more widespread in the robotics domain.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/robotics10030103","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,9,1]],"date-time":"2021-09-01T03:13:17Z","timestamp":1630465997000},"page":"103","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["A Case Study on Improving the Software Dependability of a ROS Path Planner for Steep Slope Vineyards"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"10","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0255-5005","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Lu\u00eds Carlos","family":"Santos","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"CRIIS\u2014Centre for Robotics in Industry and Intelligent Systems, Technology and Science, INESC-TEC\u2014Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal"},{"name":"ECT\u2014School of Sciences and Technologies, UTAD\u2014University of Tr\u00e1s-os-Montes and Alto Douro, 5001-801 Vila Real, Portugal"}]},{"given":"Andr\u00e9","family":"Santos","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"HASLab\u2014High-Assurance Software Laboratory, Technology and Science, INESC-TEC\u2014Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8486-6113","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Filipe Neves","family":"Santos","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"CRIIS\u2014Centre for Robotics in Industry and Intelligent Systems, Technology and Science, INESC-TEC\u2014Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5798-1298","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ant\u00f3nio","family":"Valente","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"CRIIS\u2014Centre for Robotics in Industry and Intelligent Systems, Technology and Science, INESC-TEC\u2014Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal"},{"name":"ECT\u2014School of Sciences and Technologies, UTAD\u2014University of Tr\u00e1s-os-Montes and Alto Douro, 5001-801 Vila Real, Portugal"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,26]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"107","DOI":"10.1007\/s12062-018-9225-7","article-title":"The growth, ageing and urbanisation of our world","volume":"11","author":"Leeson","year":"2018","journal-title":"J. Popul. Ageing"},{"key":"ref_2","unstructured":"Leshcheva, M., and Ivolga, A. (2017;, January 14\u201315). Human resources for agricultural organizations of agro-industrial region, areas for improvement. Proceedings of the Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development in Terms of the Republic of Serbia Strategic Goals Realization within the Danube Region: Support Programs for the Improvement of Agricultural and Rural Development, Belgrade, Serbia."},{"key":"ref_3","unstructured":"Robotics, E. (2018, April 21). Strategic Research Agenda for Robotics in Europe 2014\u20132020. Available online: Eu-robotics.net\/cms\/upload\/topic groups\/SRA2020SPARC.pdf."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Santos, L., dos Santos, F.N., Pires, E.J.S., Valente, A., Costa, P.L., and Magalh\u00e3es, S. (2020, January 15\u201317). Path Planning for ground robots in agriculture: A short review. 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