Human-robot interaction over the Internet

Describes two Java-based Internet control mechanisms, manual control and autonomous navigation, for a mobile robot to allow users to explore the robot's environment. In the manual control, a user sends control commands to the robot over the Internet to make the robot explore its environment. In the autonomous navigation mode, the user only needs to specify the target point and the rest of the task is taken care of by the robot. In both cases, the real time video images, the robot trajectory, and a status report of the robot are sent to the user over the Internet. In addition, sonar readings are transmitted over the Internet in the manual control to provide more detailed information to the user. The mobile robot was successfully controlled from several locations in the USA.