Robotics Information Day at the OMG technical meeting

11 Dec , 2012

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A Robotics Information Day was held on the 11th of December, 2012, at the OMG Technical Meeting in Burlingame, CA, USA.

A range of presentations about standardization results (RTC, RLS, RoIS, DDC4RTC) achieved by the OMG's Robotics DTF (Domain Task-force) were given. Presentations were also made about applications of and related activities to these standards, including future plans.

An Information Day is an OMG event to introduce task force activities to members of other task forces and guests. Although each task force usually holds separate meetings during the OMG technical meetings, introducing the standardisation activities and road map of a task force to members of other task forces encourages new participatation.

Change Vision, Inc., Honda R&D and JASA joined the Robotics DTF as new members. Presentations were given by these new members, as well as existing members ATR, AIST, NEDO Intelligent Software Project, and Toshiba (from Japan), and Future Robot, Sejong University, and ETRI from Korea.

A summary of these presentations and presentation materials is given below.

Intelligent RT Software Project - National Project in Japan

Prof. Tomomasa Sato

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Results of NEDO's Intelligent Software Platform Project, which ran from 2007 to 2011, were introduced by the project leader, Prof. Tomomasa Sato. The aim of the project was the development of intelligent modules based on RT-Middleware, and the accumulation and reuse of modules. Developed modules and results related to mobile robot navigation, manipulation and human-robot interaction were introduced. Additional activities, such as certified dependable middleware development, a ROS-RTM interoperability environment and the continuous integration of these software, and disaster response applications were also introduced.

Implementation of OPRoS to a Human-friendly Guide Robot, FURO

Se-Kyeong Song, CEO Future Robot

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A business developing service robots using OPRoS were introduced by Mr. SeeKyeong Song, CEO of Future Robot Inc. in Korea. They have developed a range of service robots, called FURO, that provide mainly information services in shopping malls, at event sites and in homes. The robots use the OPRoS robot middleware developed by ETRI. The system architecture of FURO and future business plans were introduced.

ISO Activity of Service Robot

Seongbin Moon, ISO/TC184/SC2/WG8 Convenar, Sejong University

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Service robot standardization activities at the ISO were introduced by Prof. Seongbin Moon from Sejong Univ, convener of ISO/TC184/SC2/WG8. Terminology in ISO standardization (service robot, personal service robot, professional service roboto, etc.), and the various fields of robot related WG activities were introduced. Especially WG8/Study Group on Modularity is now discussiong robot hardware/software modularity and its interoperability, interfaces, interchangability, robot component. OMG, OPRoS, and China are discussing these issue, and ROS and OROCOS people will be invited.

A Disruptive Community Approach to Industrial Robotics Software

Paul Evans, Southwest Research Institute

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The ROS Industrial project and consortium, which recently launched, were introduced by Mr. Paul Evans from Southwest Research institute. They are planning to introducing ROS to industrial robotics and industrial applications. ROS Industrial will contribute code quality management, documentation, tools and additional modules.

Introduction to Robotic Technology Component (RTC-1.1) Specification

Geoffrey Biggs, RTC-1.1-RTF Chair

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An introduction to the OMG RT Component standard. The technical benefits of the standard were introduced, as were the various implementations, of which there are currently 10. RTC 1.1, the most recent version of the standard, was also introduced.

Introduction to Robot Localization Service (RLS-1.1) Specification

Koji Kamei, Shuichi Nishio, RLS-1.1-RTF Chair

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The concepts and history of the Robot Localization Service (RLS) standard were introduced.

Introduction to Robotic Interaction Services Framework (RoIS-1.0)

Su-Young Chi (ETRI) and Koji Kamei (ATR), RoIS-FTF Co-Chair

The Robotic Interaction Service Framework, which specifies human-robot interaction facilities, was described, along with a description of the Ubiquitous Networked Robot Framework, an example implementation of the standard.

Introduction to Dynamic Deployment and Configuration for RTC (DDC4RTC)

Noriaki Ando (AIST), DDC4RTC FTF Co-chair

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The DDC4RTC standard for RT Component deployment, which is currently under development, was introduced. In particular, a description of the ApplicationSupervisor, which provides dynamic reconfiguration capability, was given.

Using SysML in a RTC-based Robotics Application : Case Study & Demonstration

Kenji Hiranabe (Change Vision), Noriaki Ando (AIST)

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A presentation and demonstration of using the astah UML tool and its SysML extension, developed by Change Vision, Inc., for modelling and developing robot systems. The astah tool features good usability, mindmapping, and web-based model sharing/commenting, allowing for efficient team-based development. It is also capable of interacting with running RT Component-based systems.

Robotic Technology Component Interoperability Demonstration

Makoto Sekiya (Honda R&D Co., Ltd.)

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Honda R&D introduced their new implementation of the RT Component standard. Honda's RTM is compatible with the OpenRTM-aist implementation of the RT Component standard. It also adds new features for developing FSM-based components.

Honda R&D demonstrated their implementation's compatibility with OpenRTM-aist in a live demo using two Roomba robots. A Microsoft Kinect and one Roomba ran on OpenRTM-aist, while a state machine robot controller and the other Roomba ran on Honda's RTM. The Kinect was used to provide user commands to the controller component, which managed the robots.

Demonstration

Interoperability between OpenRTM-aist and Honda's RT-Middlware

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OpenRTM-aist and Choreonoid demonstration

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Implementation of RoIS to robots in ETRI

Su-Young Chi (ETRI)

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Dr. Chi demonstrated ETRI's implementation of the RoIS framework. The demonstration used a camera to perform person identification.

Component Management in OPRoS (Open Platform for Robotic Services)

Seung-Wook Jung (ETRI)

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Dr. Jung from ETRI described Korea's national project, OPRoS, an implementation of the RT Component standard. The basic concepts, architecture and tools were introduced. OPRoS has many similar features to OpenRTM-aist, but also adds an event port. It supports Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Android and iOS, and is available as open source software.

Cloud Networked Robotics and Acceleration Based Sensing

Miwako Doi (Toshiba)

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Dr. Doi of Toshiba introduced the Cloud Network Robotics topic. As part of this work, an acceleration sensor is used to sense human activities. Toshiba'S new robot, the ApriPetit, was also introduced.

Introduction to OpenEL (Open Embedded Library) for Robots

Kenichi Nakamura (JASA: Japan Embedded Systems Technology Association)

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Kenichi Nakamura of the Japan Embedded Systems Technology Association presented an abstraction layer for embedded devices, known as OpenEL. OpenEL provides a common API to access and control various devices such as motors and sensors, and supports a range of operating systems. Currently support is included for the Lego NXT sensors and motors. They are proposing adding Android support and working with OpenRTM-aist and ROS.

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