| Introduction | ||
| Internet Robotics Xavier Pygmalion WebControlled Robotic Arm Tele Garden RobIN
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 The current boom in the field of ubiquitous embedded computing hardware has made it feasible to foresee and conjure robotic applications on a network (collectively known as Internet Robotics). This growth covers a gamut of applications that range from petty household chores to more challenging and hazardous ones encountered in industry and search and rescue missions. While a considerable amount of work has been carried out on the software front, providing easy to use, reliable and flexible remote physical assistance via networked communication using robots and such related devices is still a much fraught after area. The advent of laptops, palmtops, wearable computers and the like, gadgets that realize ubiquitous computing, coupled with improved and reliable network connectivity, calls for not just the use of computers running software at far off ends but for intelligent physical robots and devices serving physical mobility remotely. There is also a growing need to implement smart buildings, rooms and kitchens that can communicate amongst themselves, arrive at and implement autonomous decisions over a network. The trend of embedding robots and devices into the Internet is fast catching up.Especially in the field of Robotics, this idea has found many implementations. But most of these applications have been made for controlling a particular robot. Let us look at some of the more successful examples: Xavier is an autonomous mobile robot on the web and is available through one of the many links to its web site http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~Xavier. The mobile robot, Xavier can accept commands to travel to different offices in the building, broadcasting camera images as it travels. Pygmalion (at EPFL Laussane) addresses issues of multi-modal tele-presence for mobile robots. The goal is an interface, which not only transports the remote environment to the operator but also transfers the operator into his remote workplace. It is attempted to create a remote physical representation of the operator for environments occupied by people. Other popular examples of Internet Robotics are the Telerobot running at the University of Western Australia, the Mercury project developed at University of Southern California, and a web-controlled robotic arm developed at the St. Lawrence College. Tele Garden and tele-actor are two other projects running on the same lines of the Mercury project developed at University of Southern California. Tele Garden allows a remote user to cultivate a garden by planting seeds, watering plants, via the control of an industrial robotic arm. Apart from above cited examples, many such devices can be accessed over the Internet. The advantages of controlling remote devices over the Internet are immense.While on one side the use of the Internet as a medium for transporting and realizing physical movement at distant and isolated locations is the need of the day, a common platform that provides robot-independence (analogous to device independence) is far more desirable. What has therefore to be evolved is a standard to embed, command and control robots over the Internet. ORIN and RCML are a couple of attempts to realise this. There is still more to real world robotics – some robots may be capable of performing one set of jobs while others may be able to perform another set. Though this may not be mutually exclusive, a strategy that will endorse co-operative behaviour in solving complex problems has to be evolved. A medium and protocol for communication in such multi-robot scenarios becomes a sine qua non. Connectivity to the Internet should also ensure availability of web-based information repositories and assisting agents to transform them to useful knowledge. We at the Indian Institute of
Technology Guwahati, are striving to realise an architecture christened Robots-In-Net (RobIN) that can enable users to
command a variety of devices including robots and home appliances through normal desktop
and smart devices. Users need only connect to a Centralized Co-ordinating Server to access
all such robots/devices deployed on the web. |
