Internet - based Robotic Systems for Teleoperation

Today's Internet technology provides a convenient way for us to develop an integrated network environment for the diversified applications of different robotic systems. To be successful in real-world applications, Internet-based robots require a high degree of autonomy and local intelligence to deal with the restricted bandwidth and arbitrary transmission delay of the Internet. This paper describes the first step toward building such an Internet-based robotic system for teleoperation in the University of Essex. The system has a standard network protocol and an interactive human-machine interface. Using a Web browser, a remote operator can control the mobile robot to navigate in our laboratory with visual feedback and a simulated environment map via the Internet. The employment of an intuitive user interface enables Internet users to control the mobile robot and implement useful tasks remotely. Although at its first stage, the developed system has the potential to be extended to many real-world applications such as tele-manufacturing, tele-training and tele-service. I. INTRODUCTION The operation of current robotic systems in manufacturing industry and the service sector has remained separate and independent [7]. In other words, these robotic systems are isolated from one another by different environments and have no effective way to communicate. This has made the current robotic systems expensive and requiring a long developing cycle, which has in turn seriously hampered the day-today deployment of robot technology. Therefore it is crucial to develop an integrated network environment for robotic systems based on today's Internet technology. With the rapid growth of the Internet, more and more intelligent devices or systems have been embedded into it for service, security and entertainment, including distributed computer systems, surveillance cameras, telescopes, manipulators and mobile robots. Although the notion of Internet robotics or web-based robotics is relatively new and still in its infancy, it has captured the huge interest of many researchers worldwide. Except for operating in hazardous environments that are traditional telerobotic areas, Internet robotics has opened up a completely new range of real-world applications, namely tele-manufacturing, tele-training, tele-surgery, museum guide, traffic control, space exploration, disaster rescue, house cleaning, and health care. Although the Internet provides a cheap and readily available communication channel for tele-operation, there are still many problems that need to be solved before successful real-world applications can be achieved. These problems include its restricted bandwidth and arbitrarily large transmission delay, which influence the performance of the Internet-based telerobotic systems. Therefore, it is necessary to …