Robot Middleware and its Standardization in OMG - Report on OMG Technical Meetings in St. Louis and Boston

In this paper, we report our activities of standardization in OMG, especially the OMG St. Louis Technical Meeting held in April, and the OMG Boston Technical Meeting held in June. The goal of this paper is to start a technical discussion in the robotics and mechatronics community to promote RT-middleware technology (robot systems designed by reusable building blocks) that results in efficient development of complicated robot systems. As a vehicle for the rapid development and diffusion of this RT-middleware technology, we've just started up an international standardization activity on robot technologies. In order to increase interoperability, compatibility and reusability between the various robotic common components, Object Managing Group (OMG) established Robotics Domain Task Force (Robotics-DTF) in December 2005. The Robotics-DTF is looking to begin a dialog with vendors, end users, researchers, robotics organizations and other interested parties to lay the groundwork for a common platform-independent model of robotics software development