Development of a system integration method using robotic intelligent components

This paper describes an outline of our project on robotic system integration. We suggest a unified system integration method to build an intelligent robotic system using robotic intelligent components. We introduce the concept of a robotic intelligent component which consists of an embedded hardware module adopting EtherCAT bus and a software module based on Open Software Platform for Robotic Services (OPRoS). Using these intelligent robotic components in developing robotic system, robotic system integrator can reduce developing times and maintenance cost while improving the reusability of components because interoperability between components is guaranteed. We have developed a new easy system integration method using robotic intelligent components. Experiments show the effectiveness of this new integration method.