Robot task commander with extensible programming environment

A method comprising:

• placing a robot task commander (RTC) in networked communication with a control module of a robot over a network transport layer (NTL), wherein the RTC includes and at least one script engine and a graphical user interface (GUI) having a text editor and a file browser;
• developing a task sequence via the GUI, including:
• opening a Visual Programming Language (VPL) environment and the text editor;
• constructing, via the text editor, a set of code library blocks using an interpretive language computer programming code;
• storing a task sequence from a plurality of the constructed code library blocks in memory, wherein each code library block includes a corresponding input and output connection;
• assigning data to the input and output connections identifying required input and output data for each of the code library blocks forming the task sequence;
• and
• transmitting the stored task sequence to at least one script engine over the NTL;
• processing the stored task sequence via the at least one script engine;
• and
• controlling, via the control module, a motion of the robot in response to the processed task sequence.

A robot task commander (RTC) in networked communication with a plurality of control modules for a matching plurality of robots over a network transport layer (NTL), wherein the control module controls task execution of a corresponding one of the robots, the RTC comprising:

• a plurality of script engines;
• at least one processor;
• a graphical user interface (GUI) providing access to a text editor and to a Visual Programming Language (VPL) environment;
• and
• tangible, non-transitory memory;
• wherein the at processor is configured to execute instructions from the memory, via the processor, to thereby:
• receive a task sequence for at least one of the robots from one of the text editor and the VPL environment;
• store the task sequence in the memory as a set of code library blocks;
• assign data to an input and an output connection of the code library blocks identifying respective input and output data for each code library block;
• transmit the task sequence to the plurality of script engines over the NTL;
• process the task sequence via the plurality of script engines;
• and
• transmit the processes task sequence to the control module of at least one of the robots over the NTL to thereby command execution of the task sequence by the at least one robot;
• wherein the GUI is configured to display on-line feedback of state and telemetry data at runtime to enable diagnostics of the execution of the task sequence in real time.