1. Allen Yang Yang University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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
H. Gonzales-Banos, V. Ng-Thow-Hing, J. E. Davis
Honda Research Institute, Mountain View, CA

2. Motivation Copyright Lucasfilm Ltd. Mobile Robot with Pan-Tilt Camera
Honda Asimo Humanoid Robot

3. Why do we need a motion specification?
Difficulties for researchers in robotics:
Industrial copyright
Programs are not re-usable in different robot families, even different versions of same robot families
Have to choose OS based on the drivers provided
Not easy to share a robot remotely with other collaborators in different locations
Motion Commands
Windows?
Linux?
Mac OS?
Embedded OS?

4. Project goals Whatever: (cross-model) Whoever: (cross-platform)
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.

5. Demo Videos

6. 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

7. 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 [
Dedicated systems
ARIA [robots.activmedia.com/ARIA/]
Robonaut [H. Aldridge, et al., 2000]
Athena [J. Biesiadecki, et al., 2001]

8. 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

9. System Architecture System Overview Client/Server Structure
Four Communication Modes

10. Architecture - Specification Standard
Abstraction
Configuration Spec
Command Spec
Communication Spec

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

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

13. Architecture - CClientConnection
Server Daemon
CClientConnection
Input commands
Robot
Daemon
Command Queue
Read
Playback Queue
Feedback
Write
Return Queue
Priority Queues

14. Architecture - CClient
Function
calls
CClient Class
Commands to the server.
(Blocking/Nonblocking)
Class
Interface
Broadcast
cache
Return cache
Feedback
(Nonblocking)
Read Daemon

15. 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

16. Direct Mode Client Server Sync system clock Clock Command Cache Client
Function call
Cache
Robot
Daemon
Return Cache
return

17. Delay Mode Client Server Sync system clock Delay Command Cache Clock +
Function call
return
Robot
Daemon
Return Cache
error signal

18. Playback Mode Client Server Length of the sequence Command Cache Delay
Robot
Daemon
Clock
Playback Cache
Client
Cache
Function call
return
Return Cache
error signal

19. Broadcast Mode Delay Broadcast call Command Cache Client Robot Daemon
return
Command Cache
Robot
Daemon
Return Cache
data

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

21. Virtual Humanoid Pioneer Library Site A Camera Library Site B Server
Puma Library
Virtual Humanoid

22. Thank you! Allen Yang: yangyang@uiuc.edu
Hector Gonzales-Banos:
Victor Ng-Thow-Hing:
All videos available online: perception.csl.uiuc.edu/RoboTalk/