The Urbi Universal Platform for Robotics

Abstract

Abstract. Robots can free humankind from everyday chores, they can entertain us, and even educate our children. They can carry loads, walk, dance, sing, and express emotions. Hundreds of different robots are already sold in shops, and complex applications are being developed actively around the globe. So why are robots so not present today? In our experience the lack of standard in robotics, be it from the hardware or software point of view, makes the development of advanced applications for robotics unproductive. This is very similar to the early days of personal computers, until the emerging of sufficiently widespread Operating Systems increased the return-on-investment for software development. The Urbi platform sits on top of the large variety of software and/or hardware components for robotics, and provides the user with a unified, standardized, interface with which complex and portable applications can be developed. In this paper, with present the Urbi platform and some of its prominent components.