Client/Server Framework for Providing Context-Aware Services to Network Based Robots

Abstract

URC (ubiquitous robotic companion) is a new concept for a network-based robotic system, in which a different kinds of robots are connected to a server system to provide various robotic services. In this paper, we introduce the client/server framework to provide context-aware services to network-based robots. We call the framework as CAMUS (context-aware middleware for URC systems). The CAMUS is mainly composed of three parts: service agent managers, CAMUS server and planet. The service agent manager is the robot-side framework to send robot's sensing data to the CAMUS server and receive control commands from the CAMUS server. The CAMUS server is the server-side framework to manage information from service agent managers, generate and disseminate appropriate events according to the context changes, and finally execute server-based robot tasks. The planet is the communication framework between service agent managers and the CAMUS server. This paper also discusses the implementation of the URC field test applications.