Open middleware for robotics

Abstract

Despite advances in recent years, autonomous multi-robot systems remain classed as complex systems, because control and coordination of these systems remain a challenging task. Autonomous mobile robot houses heterogeneous sets of connected modular devices and are expected to communicate both synchronously and asynchronously. Robot complexities make the development of components for robot applications non-trivial and failure prone exercise. In trying to find a solution to the problem efficient modular interaction, robot software "Middleware" emerged. Middleware is software layer that provides an infrastructure for integration of applications and data in distributed systems domain. This article discusses freely available middleware for robotics and their technologies within the field of multi-robot systems to ease the difficulty of realizing robot applications. And lastly, an example of algorithm development for multi-robot co-operation using one of the discussed software architecture is presented.