AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

BANGLADESH
Kuratoli Campus

A Project Proposal Report On

Cloud Networked Robotics In The Field Of Manufacturing

Submitted by:
Siddique,Nafees
ID:13-23455-1

Submitted to:
DR. MEHERUN NESA LUCKY
Department of Science And Information Technology

December 24,2017
Contents

List of Figures ii

1 Overview 1
1.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Problem Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.3 Aim and Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.4 Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

2 Project plan 3
2.1 Proposed solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.1.1 Cloud Networked Robot Prototype . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.2 Research method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.2.1 Data Collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

3 Time Schedule 5

4 Deliverables 6

5 References 7

i
List of Figures

1.1 Cloud networked robot mechanism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

ii
Chapter 1: Overview

1.1 Introduction
In this modern age with the rapid growth of the Internet and the sprea d of smartphones, our
lifestyles are greatly changing.
Such slow but stable change for the forthcoming ag ed society requires further changes that
cannot be fulfilled by technology enhancement in cyberspace.Physical supports in the real world,
which can only be acted upon by such new devices as robots, are emergently required.Even
though improving reusability and mutual connectivity, they remain insufficient for thoroughly
supporting daily activities.

1.2 Problem Statement

Cloud networked systems maintain a huge supporting role in our daily lives by providing
numerous daily services in this modern age. It has also increased its field to the manufacturing
industry. In collaboration with robotics a new field has emerged which is known as cloud
robotics. Before the addition of cloud computing robots were used for some specific tasks for
manufacturing(Wang, S. et al., 2017.). Nowadays with the addition of cloud networked systems
the field of expertise of robots has expanded. However, the resource constraints imposed by
hardware makes it difficult to fully utilize the cloud computing environment. Also still existing
algorithms used without cloud resources can cause great resource waste .
Also,many of the areas where CNR could be applied such as workload in dangerous envi-
ronment,data center monitoring etc. may not have ideal network environments.Such unstable
environments might unplug the brain from the robot which may cause the robot to be brain
dead.This would mean that the cloud would not be able to control the motors of the quadrotor
teams, making them crash instead of executing their assigned tasks.

1.3 Aim and Objectives

The objective of this thesis project is to gain a better knowledge of the problems inherent in cur-
rent cloud robot platforms in manufacturing industry when faced with unstable manufacturing
environments. Furthermore, upon identifying the problems, some recommendations for future
developers of CNR-technology are to be made in order to enable this technology to progress
even further.
As a consequence of the problem described, the goal of this thesis project is to develop a
network-aware framework that can be used in a CNR-system operating in an unstable manu-

1
 Figure 1.1: Cloud networked robot mechanism

facturing environment. The network-aware framework should satisfy two sub-goals in order to
address the earlier mentioned problems:
1. Aim to increase the total battery time of the cloud robot.
2. Make efficient module placements choices depending on the task, place, and network
condition.

1.4 Motivation
For the last few years, CNR has been a hot topic for researchers. However, most research has been
about the different areas that could benefit from this new research area. For example, Turnbull
and Samanta developed a small scale cloud infrastructure that could handle the formation
control algorithms and compute loads of a vision acquisition system for their robots (Turnbull,
L. and Samanta, B., 2013). Much of the research concerning CNR assumes stable network
environments where the connection between the robot and cloud is unlikely to be lost. In these
scenarios, the cloud can be seen as an external brain for the robots (Turnbull, L. and Samanta,
B., 2013). CNR has also been successfully applied to explore the possibilities of parallelizing
robotic algorithm s on the cloud (Arumugam, R. et al., 2010.), remote motor control of quadrotor
te ams constructing cubic structure , and much more (Arumugam, R. et al., 2010.) . Most, if not
all, of this research builds upon the assumption of stable network environments. However, this
assumption does not reflect real-life situations and places that are affected by unstable network
environments, where the connection can instantly change from good to bad.

2
Chapter 2: Project plan

2.1 Proposed solution

A proposed machine learning-based network-aware framework solution, aiming to reach these
two sub-goals, was developed upon a cloud robot prototype.

2.1.1 Cloud Networked Robot Prototype

Before it was possible to decide on a design for the network-aware CNR system, an actual
cloud networked robot prototype had to be developed to use as a reference point. The cloud
networked robot prototype described in this chapter was developed for this thesis but was also
partly presented in (Arumugam, R. et al., 2010.)
First of all the thing that had to be done was to decide on a use-case for the cloud networked
robot prototype. Few different use-cases were considered, but the use-case which was proved
most feasible to complete under the time-limit at the time was ’a data center monitoring cloud
networked robot’.
Instead of putting a lot of temperature sensors in the data center to cover all areas, a cloud
robot can use its equipped temperature sensors to search the corridors of th e data center for
temperature hotspots. The robot will get orders from the cloud on where to search for these
temperature hots pots and begin to move to the position of the order while continuously scanning
the rout e for these hotspots. While moving around in the data center, the robot should also be
able to detect and avoid both immovable and movable objects that are in the way, e.g. th e data
center service personnel. W hen an abnormal value has been found, the robot should try to find
the origin, the temperature hotspot, and inform the cloud of the findings.

2.2 Research method

This thesis project made use of an empirical quantitative research methodology to reach its
goals. This approach was chosen since the author wanted to investigate the problem in a real
environment rather than in a computer simulated environment. Initially an inductive research
approach was used to develop a cloud robot prototype that was observed when performing
simple tasks. A theory of the current problems with CNR platforms was generated from
these observations, and a deductive research approach was used to confirm these theories. A
solution was implemented in order to tackle th e problem specified in Section 1.2 and satisfy
the goals described in Section 1.4. The solution was tested and evaluated to create so me
recommendations for future developers and researchers of th e same area.

3
2.2.1 Data Collection
The data will be collected by a series of experiments where the proposed solution will execute a
task in a corridor under various network conditions. The data will be collected by the program
written by the author and saved to a tab separated value file . Since more measurements are
preferable, as many measurements as possible will be collected during a period of two months
when the robot will not be in the way of everyday activities at the laboratory.

4
Chapter 3: Time Schedule
Tasks Weeks
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24
Task1 Decide
suit-
able
use
case
Task2 Improvement
and
sim-
u-
la-
tion
of
use
case
Task3 Prototyping
of
the
sys-
tem
Task4 Whole
sys-
tem
in-
te-
gra-
tion
Task5 Testing
and
doc-
u-
men-
ta-
tion

5
Chapter 4: Deliverables
This effort is to achieve-

• A paper on the concept of a cloud network based system capable of controlling robots

• A CNR system that can survive unfavorable manufacturing conditions

• A robotics system with low energy consumption advantage.

6
Chapter 5: References
[1]Wang, S., Zhang, C., Liu, C., Li, D. and Tang, H. (2017). Cloud-assisted interaction and
negotiation of industrial robots for the smart factory. Computers and Electrical Engineering,
63, pp.66-78.
[2]Cardarelli, E., Digani, V., Sabattini, L., Secchi, C. and Fantuzzi, C. (2017). Cooperative
cloud robotics architecture for the coordination of multi-AGV systems in industrial warehouses.
Mechatronics, 45, pp.1-13.
[3]Xu, X. (2012). From cloud computing to cloud manufacturing. Robotics and Computer-
Integrated Manufacturing, 28(1), pp.75-86.
[4]Wu, D., Thames, J., Rosen, D. and Schaefer, D. (2013). Enhancing the Product Real-
ization Process With Cloud-Based Design and Manufacturing Systems. Journal of Computing
and Information Science in Engineering, 13(4), p.041004.
[5]Kamei, K., Nishio, S., Hagita, N. and Sato, M. (2012). Cloud networked robotics. IEEE
Network, 26(3), pp.28-34.
[6]An, H., Li, J., Li, Y., Fu, X. and Yi, Y. (2017). Three dimensional memristor-based
neuromorphic computing system and its application to cloud robotics. Computers and Electrical
Engineering, 63, pp.99-113.
[7]Wang, X., Wang, L., Mohammed, A. and Givehchi, M. (2017). Ubiquitous manufac-
turing system based on Cloud: A robotics application. Robotics and Computer-Integrated
Manufacturing, 45, pp.116-125.
[8]Liu, Y., Xu, X., Zhang, L., Wang, L. and Zhong, R. (2017). Workload-based multi-task
scheduling in cloud manufacturing. Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, 45,
pp.3-20.
[9]Yan, H., Hua, Q., Wang, Y., Wei, W. and Imran, M. (2017). Cloud robotics in Smart
Manufacturing Environments: Challenges and countermeasures. Computers and Electrical
Engineering, 63, pp.56-65.
[10]Hu, G., Tay, W. and Wen, Y. (2012). Cloud robotics: architecture, challenges and
applications. IEEE Network, 26(3), pp.21-28.
[11]Wu, D., Thames, J., Rosen, D. and Schaefer, D. (2013). Enhancing the Product Real-
ization Process With Cloud-Based Design and Manufacturing Systems. Journal of Computing
and Information Science in Engineering, 13(4), p.041004.
[12] L. Turnbull and B. Samanta, "Cloud Robotics: Formation Control of a Multi Robot Sys-
tem Utilizing Cloud Infrastructure," in 2013 Proceedings of IEEE Southeastcon, Jacksonville,
FL, 2013. DOI: 10.1109/SECON.2013.6567422.
[13] R. Arumugam, V. R. Enti, L. Bingbing, W. Xiaojun, K. Baskaran, F. F. Kong, A. Kumar,
K. D. Meng and G. W. Kit, "DAvinCi: A Cloud Computing Framework for Service Robots,"
in 2010 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Anchorage, AK,

7
2010. DOI: 10.1109/ROBOT.2010.5509469.
[14] M. Higashida, "Autonomic Datacenter Operation under the concept of Cloud Network
Robotics," in IEICE Technical Report, Osaka, 2013.