RoboTalk: a general robot control framework

Can we access R2D2 & C3PO with the same control commands?

Allen Yang Yang

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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H. Gonzales-Banos, V. Ng-Thow-Hing, J. E. Davis

Honda Research Institute, Mountain View, CA
 Motivation

Copyright
Lucasfilm Ltd.

Mobile Robot with Honda Asimo

Pan-Tilt Camera Humanoid Robot
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 Why do we need a motion specification?
 Difficulties for researchers in robotics:
 Industrial copyright
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 Programs are not re-usable in

different robot families, even
different versions of same robot
families Motion Commands
 Have to choose OS based on the
drivers provided
 Not easy to share a robot remotely
Windows? Linux? Mac OS?
with other collaborators in different
locations Embedded OS?

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 Project goals

 Whatever: (cross-model)
 Provide a network-enabled interface for Asimo which is
independent of the controller libraries
 Access to other robots & simulators: Pioneer, Puma
 Whoever: (cross-platform)
 User interface must be cross-platform: support Unix, Linux, Mac
OS X and Windows.
 Wherever: (cross-network)
 Good quality of service across the Internet.

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Demo Videos

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 Contributions

 A robot specification standard

 One command interface
 Four command modes between client and server:
 Direct
 Delay
 Playback
 Broadcast
 Easy-to-change robot driver implementation on the
server-end

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 Previous Work
 Player [R. Gerkey and A. Howard, 2003]
 Open Architecture Humanoid Robotics Platform (HRP)
[F. Kanehiro, et al., 2004]

 Open Pino Project [F. Yamasaki, et al., 2000]

 OROCOS [http://www.orocos.org/]
 Dedicated systems
 ARIA [robots.activmedia.com/ARIA/]
 Robonaut [H. Aldridge, et al., 2000]
 Athena [J. Biesiadecki, et al., 2001]

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 Why not others?

 Do not support humanoid robots

 Hard to change driver implementation
 Do not have network quality support
 Do not have protection mechanism for
exotic robots

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System Architecture
 System Overview
 Client/Server Structure
 Four Communication Modes

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Architecture - Specification Standard

Abstraction
Configuration Spec

Command Spec

Communication Spec

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 Architecture - System Overview
Asimo
Library
Configuration Spec
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Command Spec
Pioneer
Communication Spec Library
Client
..
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. Server
Client/Server Simulator
Client
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 Architecture - Robotalk Server

Server Daemon Provide:

Buffering,
Read and Scheduling,
CClientConnection
Write Panic, etc.
.
TCP/IP .
sockets .
CClientConnection
Issue Robot
Driver Calls
Class
Interface Robot Daemon CRobotDriver
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 Architecture - CClientConnection

Server Daemon
CClientConnection
Input
commands Command Queue
Read
Robot
Playback Queue
Daemon
Feedback
Write Return Queue

Priority Queues
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 Architecture - CClient

Function CClient Class Commands to the server.

calls (Blocking/Nonblocking)
Class
Interface

Broadcast
cache Return cache
Feedback
(Nonblocking)
Read Daemon
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 Architecture - Communication Modes

 Direct mode:
blocking & instantaneous, for debug purposes

 Delay mode:
nonblocking, instantaneous or delay

 Playback mode:
nonblocking, adaptive caching based on channel quality

 Broadcast mode:
periodic query feedback

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 Direct Mode

Client Server Sync system clock

Clock
Function call
Command Cache
Client
Robot
Daemon
return
Cache Return Cache

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 Delay Mode

Client Server Sync system clock

Clock + Delay
Function call
Command Cache
Client
return Robot
error signal Daemon
Cache Return Cache

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 Playback Mode
Length of the sequence
Client Server Command Cache

Clock Delay
Function call
Robot
Playback Cache Daemon
Client
return
error signal
Cache Return Cache

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 Broadcast Mode

Delay

Broadcast
call
Command Cache
Client
return Robot
Daemon
data
Cache Return Cache

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 Conclusions
 Motivations
 System Structure
 Four Network Command Modes
 Future Extensions
 Exclusive control
 Data channels
 Controlling multiple humanoid robots
 Virtual humanoid robots

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Virtual Humanoid

Pioneer Site A
Library
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Camera
Library Site B
Server

Puma
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Library

Virtual Humanoid
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 Thank you!

Allen Yang: yangyang@uiuc.edu

Hector Gonzales-Banos: hhg@honda-ri.com
Victor Ng-Thow-Hing: vng@honda-ri.com

All videos available online: perception.csl.uiuc.edu/RoboTalk/

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