Ubiquitous Robot: a New Paradigm for Integrated Services
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2007 IEEE International Conference on ThD3.3 Robotics and Automation Roma, Italy, 10-14 April 2007 Ubiquitous Robot: A New Paradigm for Integrated Services Jong-Hwan Kim, Kang-Hee Lee, Yong-Duk Kim, Naveen Suresh Kuppuswamy and Jun Jo Abstract—This paper presents the components and overall The second generation of robotics was characterized by architecture of the ubiquitous robot (Ubibot) system developed stand-alone type robotic platforms serving as personal robots to demonstrate ubiquitous robotics, a new paradigm for providing a wide variety of services. This generation however integrated services. The system has been developed on the basis was characterized by the spatially localized entity - the of the definition of the ubiquitous robot as that of encompassing personal robot itself, thereby leading to limitations, which the Software robot Sobot, Embedded Robot Embot and the could prevent it from serving humans better. Later Mobile Robot Mobot. This tripartite partition, which advancements in internetworking lead to innovative independently manifests Intelligence, Perception and Action, enables the abstraction of intelligence through the architectures being researched [5]. Yet the nub of the problem standardization of sensory data and motor or action commands. was the limited ability to sense the user’s requirements, since The Ubibot system itself is introduced along with its component all sensory capabilities were located onto the robot platform, subsystems of Embots, the Position Embot, Vision Embot and thus introducing spatial limitations in the ability to sense and Sound Embot, the Mobots of Mybot and HSR, the Sobot, Rity, a thus serve. virtual pet modeled as an artificial creature, and finally the The ubiquitous robotic systems negate the necessity for Middleware which seamlessly enables interconnection between personal robotics to utilize this conventional notion of a other components. Three kinds of experiments are devised to stand-alone robot platform. This notion forms the crux of the demonstrate the fundamental features, of calm sensing, context current generation of robotics, that of the personal robot. In awareness and seamless service transcending the spatial limitations in the abilities of earlier generation personal robots. this regard, Brady defined robotics as the ‘Intelligent The experiments demonstrate the proof of concept of this connection of perception to action’ [2]. Ubiquitous robotics powerful new paradigm which shows great promise. lends itself to that description, by allowing us to redefine the interconnection between the three components, intelligence, I. INTRODUCTION perception and action, by manifesting them individually as the intelligent software robot - Sobot, the perceptive e are upon the threshold of the ubiquitous era. embedded robot - Embot and the physically active mobile Developments in computer and network technology W robot – Mobot, respectively, as described in [7]. The have hastened this era, which is characterized by interconnection is therefore created through the network and objects and devices that are fully networked. Such an the integration is carried out using the middleware in the environment shall ideally and fully be utilized by highly ubiquitous space (u-space). Ubiquitous robotic systems are advanced robots to provide us with a variety of services, at emerging and it is not difficult to imagine their widespread any place, by any device, and whenever needed. prevalence in the UC era. Ubiquitous computing (UC) coined by Mark Weiser [15], The ubiquitous robot system, the Ubibot has been under motivated a paradigm shift in computer technology, in terms development at the Robot Intelligence Technology Lab, of relationship between technology and human beings. This KAIST since 2000. Following the general concepts of shift has hastened the ubiquitous revolution which has further ubiquitous computing it is designed to be seamless, calm, and manifested itself in the new multidisciplinary research area, context aware. This paper describes the architecture and ubiquitous robotics, initiating the third generation of robotics functioning of the Ubibot system including its component following the industrial robot first generation and the second subsystems. generation of the personal robot. Section 2 of this paper defines and describes the ubiquitous robot system along with its constituent components, the This work was supported by the Ministry of Information and Embot, the Sobot, and the Mobot. Section 3 describes in Communications, Korea, under the Information technology Research Center detail the implementation of the Ubibot system including the (ITRC) Support Program. Embots, the Mobots Mybot, and HSR, and the Sobot Rity. Authors Jong-hwan Kim, Yong-Duk Kim and Naveen Suresh Section 4 presents some experimental results as a proof of Kuppuswamy are with the Robot Intelligence Technology Lab, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Korea Advanced Institute concept. The conclusions are finally presented in Section 5. of Science and Technology (KAIST), 373-1, Guseong-Dong, Yuseong-Gu, Daejeon, 305-701, Republic of Korea (phone: +82-42-869-5448; fax: II. UBIQUITOUS ROBOT SYSTEM +82-42-869-8877; emails: {johkim, ydkim, naveen} @rit.kaist.ac.kr). Kang-Hee Lee is with the Application Technology Lab, The ubiquitous robot system as defined earlier comprises Telecommunication R&D Center, Telecommunication Network business, of Sobots, Embots and Mobots in their various forms. The Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.; (email : [email protected]) ubiquitous robot is created and exists within a u-space which Jun-Jo is with the Robotics and Computer Games Lab, Griffith University, provides both its physical and virtual environment. It is Gold Coast Campus, Australia; (email : [email protected]) 1-4244-0602-1/07/$20.00 ©2007 IEEE. 2853 Authorized licensed use limited to: Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. Downloaded on October 8, 2009 at 03:36 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply. ThD3.3 anticipated that in the years to come the world will consist comprehending the current environmental situation. Embots of many such u-spaces, each being based on the IPv6 protocol are also networked and equipped with processing capabilities or a similar system and be interconnected through wired or and thus may deliver information directly or under the wireless broadband network in real time. Sobot’s instructions to the user. This can be conceptualized as a networked cooperative Embots are characterized by their calm sensing, robot system. The core intelligence of this system is information processing and information communication constituted by software robots. Distributed Embot sensors capabilities. Embots offer great functionality by being able to ensure that the Sobots possess context aware perceptive sense features such as human behavior, status, relationships capabilities. Lastly, Mobots act upon the service requests in and also environmental conditions impacting human the physical domain. Ubiquitous robots will thus be able to behavior. understand what the user needs, even without the issuance of C. Mobile Robot: Mobot a direct command, and be able to supply continuous and seamless service. Mobots offer a broad range of services for general users The primary advantage of the ubiquitous robot system is specifically within the physical domain of the u-space. that they permit abstraction of intelligence from the Mobility is a key property of Mobots, as well as the general real-world by decoupling it from perception and action capacity to provide services in conjunction with Embots and capabilities. Sensory information is standardized along with Sobots. The Mobot is usually in continuous communication motor or action information and this permits, the abstract with the Sobot in order to provide practical services based on intelligence to proceed with the task of providing services in a information given by the Embot. Alternately Mobots, serve calm and context aware manner. Embots as a platform for data gathering. Ubiquitous robots provide us with services through the D. Middleware network at anytime and anywhere in a u-space through its Middleware allows communication within and among distributed capabilities provided by the component Sobot, ubiquitous robots using a variety of network interfaces and Embot and Mobot systems. Each ubiquitous robot however protocols. Middleware usually varies from one vendor to the has specific individual intelligence and roles, and can next depending upon a variety of factors. The selected communicate information through networks. middleware allows conversion of the constituent entities of Some of the integrated services and solutions offered by the ubiquitous robot system into specific components with the ubiquitous robot technology include ubiquitous home respect to the developer, thereby making it convenient to services for security and safety, location based services like update functions, maintain resources and perform power GIS, health services in telemedicine, ubiquitous learning management. The Middleware structure for a ubiquitous systems and ubiquitous commerce services. robot system must contain at least one interface and one As mentioned earlier, the ubiquitous robot system broker. The interfaces refer to the hardware level interfaces of incorporates three kinds of robot systems: Sobots, Embots the communication protocols such as Bluetooth and Ethernet and Mobots under the ambit of its broader definition provided and the