MUSE: A Multi-Feature Semantic Fusion Method for ROS Node Search Based on Knowledge Graph

Reusing ROS components, specifically ROS Nodes, is crucial for improving the efficiency and quality of robotic software development. However, developers face challenges in finding the desired ROS Nodes for reuse due to scattered organization of ROS Nodes and the ambiguity in their ROS Node name. To address these challenges, this paper proposes a MUlti-feature SEmantic fusion method (MUSE) that leverages a domain-specific ROS knowledge graph for searching ROS Nodes. Firstly, a large dataset is constructed, comprising code files and textual descriptions related to ROS Nodes obtained from GitHub and ROS Wiki. Secondly, an in-depth analysis of user queries regarding the reuse of ROS Nodes is conducted, leading to the selection of multiple features that provide a comprehensive representation of ROS Node semantics, including Function, Hardware, Input, and Output. Subsequently, a knowledge graph of ROS Nodes is developed based on the dataset, incorporating the selected features. This knowledge graph effectively organizes scattered knowledge and resolves the issue of diverse mentions through entity disambiguation and resolution. To eliminate the semantic gap between the descriptions of features mentioned in user queries and the entities in the knowledge graph, a pretrained transformer-based model was used to measure the multi-feature semantic similarity between user queries and ROS Nodes knowledge. Finally, we employ a linear regression model to integrate the multi-feature knowledge between user queries and ROS Nodes knowledge. The proposed method has shown a 20% improvement in performance on NDCG@1 compared to other ROS Node search methods. Further evaluations highlight the effectiveness of each feature incorporated in the knowledge graph, as well as the significance of each parameter within the regression model. These findings underscore the robustness of this research in optimizing the reuse of ROS Nodes and facilitating the development of robotics software.