Remote Programming of Multirobot Systems within the UPC-UJI Telelaboratories: System Architecture and Agent-Based Multirobot Control

One of the areas that needs further improvement within E-Learning environments via Internet (A big effort is required in this area if progress is to be made) is allowing students to access and practice real experiments in a real laboratory, instead of using simulations [1]. Real laboratories allow students to acquire methods, skills and experience related to real equipment, in a manner that is very close to the way they are being used in industry. The purpose of the project is the study, development and implementation of an E-Learning environment to allow undergraduate students to practice subjects related to Robotics and Artificial Intelligence. The system, which is now at a preliminary stage, will allow the remote experimentation with real robotic devices (i.e. robots, cameras, etc.). It will enable the student to learn in a collaborative manner (remote participation with other students) where it will be possible to combine the onsite activities (performed “in-situ” within the real lab during the normal practical sessions), with the “on-line” one (performed remotely from home via the Internet). Moreover, the remote experiments within the E-Laboratory to control the real robots can be performed by both, students and even scientist. This project is under development and it is carried out jointly by two Universities (UPC and UJI). In this article we present the system architecture and the way students and researchers have been able to perform a Remote Programming of Multirobot Systems via web

SARSCEST (human factors)

People interact with the processes and products of contemporary technology. Individuals are affected by these in various ways and individuals shape them. Such interactions come under the label 'human factors'. To expand the understanding of those to whom the term is relatively unfamiliar, its domain includes both an applied science and applications of knowledge. It means both research and development, with implications of research both for basic science and for development. It encompasses not only design and testing but also training and personnel requirements, even though some unwisely try to split these apart both by name and institutionally. The territory includes more than performance at work, though concentration on that aspect, epitomized in the derivation of the term ergonomics, has overshadowed human factors interest in interactions between technology and the home, health, safety, consumers, children and later life, the handicapped, sports and recreation education, and travel. Two aspects of technology considered most significant for work performance, systems and automation, and several approaches to these, are discussed

Human-Machine Interface for Remote Training of Robot Tasks

Regardless of their industrial or research application, the streamlining of robot operations is limited by the proximity of experienced users to the actual hardware. Be it massive open online robotics courses, crowd-sourcing of robot task training, or remote research on massive robot farms for machine learning, the need to create an apt remote Human-Machine Interface is quite prevalent. The paper at hand proposes a novel solution to the programming/training of remote robots employing an intuitive and accurate user-interface which offers all the benefits of working with real robots without imposing delays and inefficiency. The system includes: a vision-based 3D hand detection and gesture recognition subsystem, a simulated digital twin of a robot as visual feedback, and the "remote" robot learning/executing trajectories using dynamic motion primitives. Our results indicate that the system is a promising solution to the problem of remote training of robot tasks.Comment: Accepted in IEEE International Conference on Imaging Systems and Techniques - IST201

The robot programming network

The Robot Programming Network (RPN) is an initiative for creating a network of robotics education laboratories with remote programming capabilities. It consists of both online open course materials and online servers that are ready to execute and test the programs written by remote students. Online materials include introductory course modules on robot programming, mobile robotics and humanoids, aimed to learn from basic concepts in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to more advanced programming skills. The students have access to the online server hosts, where they submit and run their programming code on the fly. The hosts run a variety of robot simulation environments, and access to real robots can also be granted, upon successful achievement of the course modules. The learning materials provide step-by-step guidance for solving problems with increasing level of dif- ficulty. Skill tests and challenges are given for checking the success, and online competitions are scheduled for additional motivation and fun. Use of standard robotics middleware (ROS) allows the system to be extended to a large number of robot platforms, and connected to other existing tele-laboratories for building a large social network for online teaching of robotics.Support of IEEE RAS through the CEMRA program (Creation of Educational Material for Robotics and Automation) is gratefully acknowledged. This paper describes research done at the Robotic Intelligence Laboratory. Support for this laboratory is provided in part by Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (DPI2011-27846), by Generalitat Valenciana (PROMETEOII/2014/028) and by Universitat Jaume I (P1-1B2011-54)

Cloud-based robots and intelligent space teleoperation tools

Despite an idea of robotic system teleoperation is a relatively old concept, here we present its enhancements heading to an interconnection of teleoperation and collecting relevant information from the environment where robots act. This environment should be an intelligent space featured with various devices and sensors, which allows to obtain, preprocess and stores data in the cloud. Those data should provide relevant information for teleoperator or directly for robots, which act autonomously. For this purpose, we developed cloud-based tools, named Telescope v2. It is a platform-independent system for remote monitoring and controlling various systems. In this paper, we introduce this system, its abilities, and compare it with its network-based ancestor, Telescope v1. We analyze measurements of latency and response time when our new system is used for teleoperation in different places equipped with various Internet bandwidths

Adoption of vehicular ad hoc networking protocols by networked robots

This paper focuses on the utilization of wireless networking in the robotics domain. Many researchers have already equipped their robots with wireless communication capabilities, stimulated by the observation that multi-robot systems tend to have several advantages over their single-robot counterparts. Typically, this integration of wireless communication is tackled in a quite pragmatic manner, only a few authors presented novel Robotic Ad Hoc Network (RANET) protocols that were designed specifically with robotic use cases in mind. This is in sharp contrast with the domain of vehicular ad hoc networks (VANET). This observation is the starting point of this paper. If the results of previous efforts focusing on VANET protocols could be reused in the RANET domain, this could lead to rapid progress in the field of networked robots. To investigate this possibility, this paper provides a thorough overview of the related work in the domain of robotic and vehicular ad hoc networks. Based on this information, an exhaustive list of requirements is defined for both types. It is concluded that the most significant difference lies in the fact that VANET protocols are oriented towards low throughput messaging, while RANET protocols have to support high throughput media streaming as well. Although not always with equal importance, all other defined requirements are valid for both protocols. This leads to the conclusion that cross-fertilization between them is an appealing approach for future RANET research. To support such developments, this paper concludes with the definition of an appropriate working plan