Humanoid robot presentation

1. RoboTalk: a general robot control framework
Can we access R2D2 & C3PO with the same control commands?
Allen Yang Yang
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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H. Gonzales-Banos, V. Ng-Thow-Hing, J. E. Davis
Honda Research Institute, Mountain View, CA

2. 2
Copyright
Lucasfilm Ltd.
Motivation
Mobile Robot with
Pan-Tilt Camera
Honda Asimo
Humanoid Robot

3. 3
Why do we need a motion specification?
 Difficulties for researchers in robotics:
 Industrial copyright
 Programs are not re-usable in
different robot families, even
different versions of same robot
families
 Have to choose OS based on the
drivers provided
 Not easy to share a robot remotely
with other collaborators in different
locations
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Motion Commands
Windows? Linux? Mac OS?
Embedded OS?

4. 4
Project goals
 Whatever: (cross-model)
 Provide a network-enabled interface for Asimo which is
independent of the controller libraries
 Access to other robots & simulators: Pioneer, Puma
 Whoever: (cross-platform)
 User interface must be cross-platform: support Unix, Linux, Mac
OS X and Windows.
 Wherever: (cross-network)
 Good quality of service across the Internet.

5. 5
Demo Videos

6. 6
Contributions
 A robot specification standard
 One command interface
 Four command modes between client and server:
 Direct
 Delay
 Playback
 Broadcast
 Easy-to-change robot driver implementation on the
server-end

7. 7
Previous Work
 Player [R. Gerkey and A. Howard, 2003]
 Open Architecture Humanoid Robotics Platform (HRP)
[F. Kanehiro, et al., 2004]
 Open Pino Project [F. Yamasaki, et al., 2000]
 OROCOS [http://www.orocos.org/]
 Dedicated systems
 ARIA [robots.activmedia.com/ARIA/]
 Robonaut [H. Aldridge, et al., 2000]
 Athena [J. Biesiadecki, et al., 2001]

8. 8
Why not others?
 Do not support humanoid robots
 Hard to change driver implementation
 Do not have network quality support
 Do not have protection mechanism for
exotic robots

9. 9
System Architecture
 System Overview
 Client/Server Structure
 Four Communication Modes

10. 10
Architecture - Specification Standard
Configuration Spec
Command Spec
Communication Spec
Abstraction

11. 11
Architecture - System Overview
Client/Server
...
Client
Client
Server
Asimo
Library
Pioneer
Library
Simulator
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Configuration Spec
Command Spec
Communication Spec

12. 12
Architecture - Robotalk Server
Server Daemon
Robot Daemon
Read and
Write
TCP/IP
sockets
Issue Robot
Driver Calls
CClientConnection
CClientConnection
Provide:
Buffering,
Scheduling,
Panic, etc.
Class
Interface
.
.
.
CRobotDriver

13. 13
Architecture - CClientConnection
CClientConnection
Command Queue
Return Queue
Playback Queue
Read
Write
Input
commands
Feedback
Priority Queues
Server Daemon
Robot
Daemon

14. 14
Architecture - CClient
Read Daemon
Return cache
CClient Class
Class
Interface
Commands to the server.
(Blocking/Nonblocking)
Feedback
(Nonblocking)
Broadcast
cache
Function
calls

15. 15
Architecture - Communication Modes
 Direct mode:
blocking & instantaneous, for debug purposes
 Delay mode:
nonblocking, instantaneous or delay
 Playback mode:
nonblocking, adaptive caching based on channel quality
 Broadcast mode:
periodic query feedback

16. 16
Direct Mode
Client Server Sync system clock
Clock
Command Cache
Robot
Daemon
Client
Function call
Cache Return Cache
return

17. 17
Delay Mode
Client Server Sync system clock
Robot
Daemon
Client
Cache
Function call
return
Delay
Command Cache
Clock +
Return Cache
error signal

18. 18
Playback Mode
Client
Cache
Function call
return
Return Cache
error signal
Clock
Playback Cache
Command Cache
Delay
Robot
Daemon
Client Server
Length of the sequence

19. 19
Broadcast Mode
Client
Cache
Broadcast
call
return
Command Cache
Robot
Daemon
Return Cache
data
Delay

20. 20
Conclusions
 Motivations
 System Structure
 Four Network Command Modes
 Future Extensions
 Exclusive control
 Data channels
 Controlling multiple humanoid robots
 Virtual humanoid robots

21. 21
Virtual Humanoid
Server
Pioneer
Library
Camera
Library
Puma
Library
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Site A
Site B
Virtual Humanoid

22. 22
Thank you!
Allen Yang: yangyang@uiuc.edu
Hector Gonzales-Banos: hhg@honda-ri.com
Victor Ng-Thow-Hing: vng@honda-ri.com
All videos available online: perception.csl.uiuc.edu/RoboTalk/