Incorporation of a software robot and a mobile robot using a middle layer

Abstract

One of the key components of an ubiquitous robot (Ubibot) is the software robot (Sobot), which can communicate with embedded robot (Embot) and mobile robot (Mobot). Sobot is a virtual robot, which has the ability to move to any place or to connect to any device through a network without any spatial limitation. Embot has the capability to sense the surroundings and to interpret the context of the environment and can communicate with Mobot and Sobot. Mobot provides an integrated mobile services. To incorporate Sobot, Embot, and Mobot reliably as an Ubibot, a middle layer is needed to arbitrate different protocols among them. This paper focuses on incorporating Sobot and Mobot to overcome physical limitations of Sobot for physical behaviors in real situations. To implement the incorporation of them, the basic concept and structure of the middle layer are proposed. The effectiveness of the middle layer for Sobot and Mobot is demonstrated through real experiments.