  The paper presents a software architecture to optimize the process of
prototyping and deploying robot controllers that are synthesized using
model-based design methodologies. The architecture is composed of a framework
and a pipeline. Therefore, the contribution of the paper is twofold. First, we
introduce an open-source actor-oriented framework that abstracts the common
robotic uses of middlewares, optimizers, and simulators. Using this framework,
we then present a pipeline that implements the model-based design methodology.
The components of the proposed framework are generic, and they can be
interfaced with any tool supporting model-based design. We demonstrate the
effectiveness of the approach describing the application of the resulting
synchronous dataflow architecture to the design of a balancing controller for
the YARP-based humanoid robot iCub. This example exploits the interfacing with
Simulink and Simulink Coder.
