Distributed robotics over the Internet

We present a communication framework to enable control and collaboration between multiple users over the Internet. We first discuss standard Internet protocols and extensions known as middleware and technologies in the context of Internet telerobotics. A protocol and framework suitable for collaborative telerobotic control are then introduced and discussed. Finally, an example of how the framework might be used for a simple telerobotic system is presented. The system has been tested locally but is not yet freely available on the Internet.