A Ubiquitous and Cooperative Service Framework for Network Robot System

Abstract

Network robot system (NRS) is a new concept that integrates physical autonomous robots, environmental sensors and human-robot interactions through network-based cooperation. The aim of this paper is to provide a ubiquitous and cooperative service framework for NRS. We first present foundational concepts of semantic map and service abstraction for the framework. Then, in order to generate feasible service configurations to fulfill tasks, we propose service configuration and reconfiguration algorithms, which dynamically search the appropriate service configurations for each task. Additionally, we put forward a service reasoning an enabling process to tackle service unavailable problems. The service configuration’s cost evaluation function is also proposed to facilitate the choosing against different service configurations. In implementation, we have developed a prototype system comprised of two robots and other various devices. Experiments indicate that the versatile service framework provides self-adaptive capabilities and utilizes available resources efficiently under a range of different scenarios.