Development of middleware based control system for a service robot

This paper proposes a state of the art control system for a service robot based on the Jini service/client architecture over an open network. Jini, based on Java runnable on a multi-platform, is a middleware technology designed for network plug-and-play, no hardware/software distinction, spontaneous networking and simple connection procedure. This paper shows the architecture of the Java-runnable embedded system and resource sharing technique based on Jini technology. The proposed system is open to various client devices such as PC, PDA (Personal Digital Assistants) and possibly information appliances, distinct from conventional remote control systems which only use the PC as a client environment to access the robot service. The target robot is teleoperable, via standard point-and-click mouse commands over the World Wide Web. Experimental results show the efficiency of the proposed near on-line control system, designed according to the procedure proposed in this paper.