Framework design for distributed service robotic systems

Service robot is one of the most promising industries in the future. Modular framework for designing and implementing a distributed service robot system including robot and intelligent environment is proposed. Components as sensors and actuators of a robotic system are standardized in both hardware and software design, resulting in an abstraction of digital smart devices with certain functions. A unified software platform with a core of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) middleware is established for the system. It employs the Player toolkit to access smart devices via drivers and interfaces, and the Web Service technology is introduced for automatic collaboration of smart services according to their functions. An implementation of a home-care service robotic system is described with 2D/3D realistic simulation. Experimental results validate the flexibility and open performance of the proposed demo system.