Internet-Based Service Robotic System Using CORBA as Communication Architecture

Abstract

Many Internet robotic systems have been developed on the Web over the last few years. Internet telerobotic systems have typically been operated using two ways communication links between a client and a remote robotic system (Barney Dalton et al, 1998), one is using HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) combined with CGI (Common Gateway Interface) and the other way is using Java. The University of Southern California’s Mercury Project (Ken Goldberg et al, 2000) used HTTP combined with CGI (Common Gateway Interface) to develop a tele-excavation system that enabled web users to manipulate a remote “real world”. CMU project developed Xavier autonomous indoor robot on the Web using CGI (Reid Simmons et al, 1998, Reid Simmons et al, 2000). KhepOnTheWeb (Patrick Saucy et al, 1998, Patrick Saucy et al, 2000) uses CGI, which allows the user to control a Khepera robot in a static environment. Another CGI system is the WebPioneer (WebPioneer, 1998), in which the user drives a Pioneer robot in an unknown room. CGI system causes latency and poor scalability because a new process must be started for each user request. The USA Puma Paint project (Matthew R. Stein et al, 1998, Matthew R. Stein, 2000) is a Web site allowing any user with a Java TM compatible Web browser to control a PUMA760 robot to paint on an easel with real brushes and paint. Mobile robot on the Web project (Roland Siegwart et al, 1998) uses Java to establish a modular framework for mobile robots on the Web. Java is executable within a Web page. Java programs can be run as applets within the browser and supply an interactive interface instead of a static one. But Java client must know the location of all servers to which it wants to connect and Java allows applets to connect only to the host they were served from. In this paper, we propose using CORBA to implement networking connections between a client and a remote robotic system. Our goal was to propose the advanced architecture to implement the Internet robotic system that can overcome the shortcomings of the other Internet robotic systems. CORBA uses an Object Request Broker (ORB) as the middleware that establishes client/server relationships between objects. This allows a client to invoke a method on a server across network transparently without needing to know where the application servers are located, or what programming language and operating system are used. Our secondary goal was to implement the network-based robotic system to assist the aged or disabled in their homes because the elderly population is growing while the number of people to take care of them is declining. The primary task of the system would be to supply food and a cup of water or juice to aged and disabled persons. To