UBIQUITOUS AND COOPERATIVE NETWORK ROBOT SYSTEM WITHIN A SERVICE FRAMEWORK

Abstract

Network robot system (NRS) is a new concept that integrates physical autonomous robots, environmental sensors, and human–robot interactions through network-based cooperation. The aim of this paper is to provide a ubiquitous and cooperative service framework for NRS. We first present foundational concepts of semantic map and service definition for the framework. Then, in order to generate feasible service configurations to fulfill tasks, we propose service configuration and reconfiguration algorithms, which dynamically search the appropriate service configurations for different tasks. Additionally, we put forward a service reasoning and enabling process to tackle the service unavailable problems. A cost evaluation function for service configuration is also proposed to facilitate the selection of suitable configurations. We tested and evaluated the framework in both simulation system and physical environment. Specifically, by separately varying the parameter settings, system performance was measured in three aspects: the success rate of tasks, the average waiting time per task, and the average cost per task. The experiment results indicate that the versatile service framework provides self-adaptive capability and utilizes available resources efficiently under a range of different scenarios.