Interoperable Systems Based On Corba Middleware Technology Of Heterogeneous Robots

With the development of science and technology, most robots have been built for pure environment, some wider variety and more complex tasks must be achieved by a number of robots' co-operation, each specializing in its own expertise area. Modern robot systems are distributed systems, and their designs exhibit large heterogeneity in terms of hardware, operating systems, communications protocols, and programming languages. Vendor-provided programming environments have not kept pace with recent developments in software technology. So, how to make the communication and co-operate between multiple robots become a valuable research topic.This dissertation proposes a novel method to solve the heterogeneous problem between multiple robots using C++ CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture) middleware technology, and details the system's features, architecture, and implementation. CORBA is an industrial specification proposed by the Object Management Group (OMG), mainly used for the distributed object programming. A CORBA system is actually a combination of a series of objects. These objects are divided into the server side and the client based on the clear definition of packaging interface. The client can transparently invoke methods on the application servers through ORB without knowing where the servers are located. The client and server can be developed in different operating systems with different programming languages. Middleware makes the development of robot applications easier and faster, and increases portability, reusability ,and maintainability.Firstly, the dissertation reviews the research background, significance and the recent research situation of the heterogeneous robots' inter-operation.Secondly, the specification and the architecture of CORBA, IIOP protocol and the CORBA service are issued. CORBA is just a technical specification, not a programming language, so ACE/TAO is used for the development platform.Thirdly, in this dissertation, the robot Kinematics model is built, the coordinate system of each axis is defined according to Denavit-Hartenberg method, and its kinematics equation is given. Also, the direction problem and inverse problem of the UP6 robot is calculated, and the problem of multivalue is discussed.Fourthly, the system's framework and development process is illustrated. The framework defines a set of robot interfaces according to different types of robots, which are overridden by service implementations to provide actual behaviors. A real-time control and surveillance software with a friendly user interface is implemented at last.Finally, a whole test is taken and the experimental data is analyzed. The result shows that the system can fulfill all of the work. The system has a good operability and real-time performance.