Many teams in the world are working on the topic Cloud Robotics. This talk introduce you how to connect the Nao robot with the cloud to share knowledge about objects, plans and environments with other robots. With this approach it is possible, that heterogeneous robots can exchange executable robot apps among eachother. The RoboEarth webservice will be used to store robotic-specific information. Robots are able to share knowledge via RoboEarth. So Robots are not longer on their own - they can benefit from the experience other robots.

1. 04.06.2013 NAO TECH DAY @ ALDEBARAN ROBOTICS
NAO IN THE CLOUD
FLORIAN JOHANNßEN
florixcan.johannssen@haw-hamburg.de
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2. Outline
 Motivation
 Cloud Robotics
 Related Work
 Current Research
 Conclusion
Motivation Cloud Robotics Related Work Current Research Conclusion
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3. Motivation
 Humans learn from each other via the Internet
 Robots are limited by
 Costs
 Hardware resources
 Local knowledge
 Why don‘t robots use the Internet as well?
 Robots are WIFI-enabled
 Robots have high-level interfaces
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Motivation Cloud Robotics Related Work Current Research Conclusion

4.  Cloud Robotics = Cloud Computing + Robotics
 Knowledge sharing
 Object descriptions
 Plans
 Environments
 Outsourcing
 Speech & object recognition
 Reasoning
Cloud Robotics
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Motivation Cloud Robotics Related Work Current Research Conclusion

5. Origin of cloud-enabled robots
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The idea was originated by the University of Tokyo
 Remote-brained robots by Masayuki Inaba (1993) [1]
 Mechanical animals using the remote-brained approach
(1994) [2]
 A remote-brained full-body humanoid… (1997) [3]
 A Platform for Robotics Research Based on the Remote-
Brained Robot Approach (2000) [4]
Motivation Cloud Robotics Related Work Current Research Conclusion

6. Advantages and Opportunities
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 Improvement of the learning mechanism
 Robots benefit from the experiences of others
 Robots are able to share executable plans
 Handling of tasks in unknown environments
 Robots are able to perform more generic challenges
 Offload compute-intensive tasks
 Massively-parallel computation on demand
 Building of lighter, cheaper and smarter robots
Motivation Cloud Robotics Related Work Current Research Conclusion

7. Knowledge sharing for robots
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 RoboEarth Knowledge Database by [5]
 Eindhoven University of Technology
 Philips Innovation Services
 University of Stuttgart
 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich
 University of Zaragoza
 Technical University Munich
 RobotShare by [6]
 University of Utah
Motivation Cloud Robotics Related Work Current Research Conclusion

8. Outsourcing heavy tasks
 Rapyuta: The RoboEarth cloud engine by [7]
 The RoboEarth team
 DaVinCi by [8]
 Agency for Science, Technology and Research Singapore
 Cloud-Based robot grasping with the Google object
recognition engine by Google [9]
 Smartphone Robot Romo by Romotive [10]
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Motivation Cloud Robotics Related Work Current Research Conclusion
99 $

9. Current Research
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 Sharing executable plans among several Nao robots
[12]
[11]
Motivation Cloud Robotics Related Work Current Research Conclusion

10. 10
[13]
RoboEarth
Motivation Cloud Robotics Related Work Current Research Conclusion

11. Architecture
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Ubuntu
ROS
KnowRob
CRAM-Core
RoboEarth
Nao
Wrapper
Motivation Cloud Robotics Related Work Current Research Conclusion

12. Abstract Plan
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[14]
Motivation Cloud Robotics Related Work Current Research Conclusion

13. KnowRob - Request
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re_download_action_recipe(‘serve a drink’, robot: ‘MyRobot’, Recipe),
re_generate_cpl_plan(Recipe, CplPlan).
( d e f - t o p - l e v e l - p l a n
s e r v e - a - d r i n k ( )
( wi t h - d e s i g n a t o r s (
( b o t t l e 1 ( o b j e c t ‘ ( ( name b o t t l e 1 )
( type d r i n k i n g - b o t t l e ) ) ) )
( bed1 ( o b j e c t ‘ ( ( name bed1 )
( type b e d p i e c e - o f - f u r n i t u r e ) ) ) )
...
[15]
Motivation Cloud Robotics Related Work Current Research Conclusion

14. Architecture
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[13]
[12]
Ubuntu
ROS
KnowRob
CRAM -Core
RoboEarth
Nao
Wapper
Motivation Cloud Robotics Related Work Current Research Conclusion

15.  Development of an interface between Nao and
RoboEarth via the ROS-middleware
Interface
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[16]
[13]
[15]
(def-top-level-plan grasp-bottle ()
(with-designators
((fridge (object '((type fridge))))
(bottle-loc (location `((inside ,fridge))))
(bottle (object `((type bottle) (at ,bottle-loc)))))
(setf fridge (perceive-object fridge))
(achieve `(object-in-hand ,bottle :right))))
...
Motivation Cloud Robotics Related Work Current Research Conclusion

16. Scenario
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 Solving a task which the Nao hasn´t performed before
 Scanning the RoboEarth Database for the task
 Translating an abstract plan to a CRAM plan
 Nao downloads the executable plan via KnowRob
 Solving the task
Motivation Cloud Robotics Related Work Current Research Conclusion

17. Technical challenges
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 How to connect Nao with the cloud?
 Is it possible that heterogeneous robots are able to share
executable plans?
 Different capabilities
 Which kind of abstraction layer?
 Latency problems
 Without their wireless connection to the cloud, robots
become brainless
 Security problems
 Would you store information about your patients in a cloud
for robots ?
 What happens if the cloud is hacked?
Motivation Cloud Robotics Related Work Current Research Conclusion

18. Conclusion
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 Cloud Robotics = Cloud Computing + Robotics
 Knowledge sharing among heterogeneous robots
 Offloading heavy tasks
 Many projects are working on this topic
 Opportunities
 Improvement of the learning mechanism
 Robots are able to share executable plans
 Massively-parallel computation on demand
 Nao in the Cloud
 Middleware ROS
 CRAM Plan Language
 KnowRob
Motivation Cloud Robotics Related Work Current Research Conclusion

19. References
1. Inaba, Masayuki. Remote Brained Robots. Tokio, 1993
2. Inaba M., Kagami, S., Ishikawa, T., Kanehiro, F., Takeda, K., Inoue, H., Vision-based adaptive and interactive behaviors in mechanical
animals using the remote-brained approach. Tokyo, 1994
3. Inaba M., Ninomiya, T., Hoshino, Y., Nagasaka, K., Kagami, S., Inoue, H. A remote-brained full-body humanoid with multisensor imaging
system of binocular viewer, ears, wrist force and tactile sensor suit, 1997
4. Inaba M., Kagami S., Kanehiro F., Hoshino Y., Inoue H. A Platform for Robotics Research Based on the Remote-Brained Robot Approach
5. Zweigle, Molengraft, Andrea, Häussermann. RoboEarth – connecting Robots worldwide.Eindhoven, 2009
6. Fan, Xiuyi, und Thomas C. Henderson. RobotShare: A Google for Robots. 2007
7. D. Hunziker, M. Gajamohan, M. Waibel, and R. D’Andrea. Rapyuta: The RoboEarth Cloud Engine. 2013
8. Enti, V.R.; Liu Bingbing; Wu Xiaojun; Baskaran, K.; Foong Foo Kong;Kumar, A.S.; Kang Dee Meng; Goh Wai Kit. DAvinCi: A cloud
computing framework for service robots. 2010
9. Ben Kehoe, Akihiro Matsukawa, Sal Candido, James Kuffner, and Ken Goldberg.. Cloud-Based Robot Grasping with the Google Object
Recognition Engine. 2013
10. http://romotive.com/images/romo-frontal.png
11. http://www.roboearth.org/
12. http://asep-championship.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/NAO-4_cutout.png
13. D. Marco, M. Tenorth, K. Häussermann, O. Zweigle, P. Levi. RoboEarth Action Recipe Execution. 2011
14. M. Tenorth, A. Perzylo, R. Lafrenz and M. Beetz. The RoboEarth language: Representing and Exchanging Knowledge about Actions,
Objects, and Environments, 2012
15. M. Beetz, L. Mösenlechner, M. Tenort. CRAM -- A Cognitive Robot Abstract Machine for Everyday Manipulation in Human Environments
16. http://ros.org/doc/groovy/api/nao_driver/html/classnao__driver_1_1nao__driver__naoqi_1_1NaoNode.html
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20. THANK YOU FOR
YOUR ATTENTION
I´LL BE HAPPY TO ANSWER
ANY QUESTIONS!