Loose Robot Communication over the Internet

Abstract

As robot technology is disseminated from special fields such as factory production to everyday fields such as home use, community work, and entertainment, working space of robots also expands from dedicated area such as factory sites to ordinary living space. Combining this technology shift and the popularized public Internet suggests the emergence of new robot applications. The Internet, however, as its nature, is not suitable for tight coupling of processes among robots and computers. An approach different from simple expansion of current robot communication technology is thus necessary. After discussing the essentials of communication, i.e., closed and open networks, and tight and loose couplings of processes, we propose combining Web Services technology and autonomous robot technology. We present several cases to examine this approach. The applicability of Web Services to robot communication is confirmed through implementation. Feasible applications are studied using application instances combining autonomous robots with the Internet. Feasibility is also examined from Web Services technology point of view.