Mobile – robot remote control and communication system design

1. Mobile – robot remote control and communication system design P. Petrova, R. Zahariev Central Laboratory of Mechatronics and InstrumentationBulgarian Academy of Sciences

2. Telerobotics • Introduction • History and use of Telerobots • Virtual Reality • Teleoperation • Teleoperation and Telepresence • Tele-action • Interfaces • Wireless connections: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth • “threaded” connections • Internet Telerobot-Control and Communication

3. Main Applications • Exploration, monitoring and surveillance • Space exploration • Underwater/surface exploration • Wildlife observation • Fire awareness monitoring • Debris cleaning and human rescue • Spy-robots • Household and education • Household appliances control • Virtual simulators and games • Virtual-distance laboratories • Manipulations from distance, indirect manipulations • Bomb defusal • Tele-surgery • Nuclear decontamination and decommissioning Telerobot-Control and Communication

4. Telerobot Characteristics • Operation mode • Autonomous cyclic operation • Semi-autonomous – surveillance algorithm can be interrupted by operator • Operator-controlled • Control interfaces • Combination of several interfaces working interchangeably • Possible direct (RF) or indirect (Network) control • Structure • Form • Components • Movement method – wheels, caterpillar tracks stc. Telerobot-Control and Communication

5. Hardware Mobile – Robot components: • Monitoring – camera and microphones • Sensors – possibility for night vision (IR), distance sensors, obstacle sensors • Autonomous power supply – long lasting, easy changeable/ rechargeable, power saving operation • Local data storage – backup Network components: • Server PC • Client PCs Telerobot-Control and Communication

6. Access Types • SOSR, single-operator multiple-robot • Most networked robots are SOSR, where control is limited to one human operator at a time • each operator controls one robot arm and the robot arms have overlapping workspaces • MOMR multiple-operator multiple-robot • MOMR models are also relevant to on-line collaborative games, where players remotely control individual avatars in a shared virtual environment • SOMR single-operator multiple-robot • one human operator controls multiple robots. A variant is no-operator multiple-robot (NOMR) systems, sometimes called collaborative or cooperative robotics, where groups of autonomous robots interact to solve an objective • MOSR multiple-operator single-robot • serial pipelined communication, with overlapping plan and execution phases; such collaboration improves overall execution time, but do not address conflict resolution between user Telerobot-Control and Communication

7. MOSR Network Structure Telerobot-Control and Communication

8. System Structure Telerobot-Control and Communication

9. Communication Software • Top Level – Server-Client-based • Server application • Client application – Java based applet • Low Level – embedded • Embedded C/C++ based control program • Global trajectory planning • Obstacle avoidance and smoothing algorithms • GPS information and control Telerobot-Control and Communication

10. LabView GUI • Off-the-shelf realization -LabView • Widely used software environment • Facilitates modification of functionality • Enables visual robot programming • Custom-made realization – Visual C++ • Component-based software approach • Low-level control functions integration • Library implementation • Graphical programming techniques can be used the implementation Telerobot-Control and Communication

11. Software Operation Modes • Access • Direct online monitoring – “live” feed – robot -> operator • Downloadable client-server applications – bidirectional communication • Direct RF control – short range - bidirectional • Data transfer and storage • Server side data storage • Data visualization – calculations and formatting algorithms • Online activity history Telerobot-Control and Communication

12. Security Issues • Hardware reliability in hazardous environment • Operations queue – prioritization • Malicious activity reliability • Platform independency • TCP advantages/disadvantages • User Access/Registration – management • Do we want anybody to be able to access and operate the robot? • Operation mode management Telerobot-Control and Communication

13. Conclusions • The described architecture provides versatility to the mobile-robot, allowing for application modification • The combination of commercial and custom-designed software facilitates the design and provides higher reliability • The system could enhance the conduction of some on-field measurement experiments, allowing “on-line” access without necessary human presence Telerobot-Control and Communication