Communication architectures for web-based telerobotic systems

Abstract

Controlling robotic devices from remote places, using an existing, wide spread network is significantly extend their application. Internet, considering its wide spread and accessibility, is and ideal media for data transmission between a robot and its operator, but the limitation in bandwidth, the notable delay, and the unreliability of the network introduces several problems. Proposals for communication strategies are presented in the paper, for maximizing the usability of a web telerobot system in different network conditions. Results are based on the evaluation of a teleoperated mobile microrobot system, in that a human operator has real-time remote access to a microrobot through a web browser running on any Internet-connected computer. Methods for choosing the appropriate transport protocol, selecting relevant data to be transmitted, and compression of live video for teleoperation are addressed. A combined multi-resolution / JPEG compression image coding technique and its application is described, which offers very effective (up to 1:50-1:80) compression without significant image quality degradation in the region of interest.