This paper gives an overview of ROS, an opensource robot operating system. ROS is not an operating system in the traditional sense of process management and scheduling; rather, it provides a structured communications layer above the host operating systems of a heterogenous compute cluster. In this paper, we discuss how ROS relates to existing robot software frameworks, and briefly overview some of the available application software which uses ROS.

ROS: an open-source Robot Operating System

Mobile computing continuously evolve through the sustained effort of many researchers. It seamlessly augments users' cognitive abilities via compute-intensive capabilities such as speech recognition, natural language processing, etc. By thus empowering mobile users, we could transform many areas of human activity. This article discusses the technical obstacles to these transformations and proposes a new architecture for overcoming them. In this architecture, a mobile user exploits virtual machine (VM) technology to rapidly instantiate customized service software on a nearby cloudlet and then uses that service over a wireless LAN; the mobile device typically functions as a thin client with respect to the service. A cloudlet is a trusted, resource-rich computer or cluster of computers that's well-connected to the Internet and available for use by nearby mobile devices. Our strategy of leveraging transiently customized proximate infrastructure as a mobile device moves with its user through the physical world is called cloudlet-based, resource-rich, mobile computing. Crisp interactive response, which is essential for seamless augmentation of human cognition, is easily achieved in this architecture because of the cloudlet's physical proximity and one-hop network latency. Using a cloudlet also simplifies the challenge of meeting the peak bandwidth demand of multiple users interactively generating and receiving media such as high-definition video and high-resolution images. Rapid customization of infrastructure for diverse applications emerges as a critical requirement, and our results from a proof-of-concept prototype suggest that VM technology can indeed help meet this requirement.

/pdf/the-case-for-vm-based-cloudlets-in-mobile-computing-1rofse2vmh.pdf

The Case for VM-Based Cloudlets in Mobile Computing

National Institute of Standards and Technology における超伝導研究及び生活

Mobile applications are becoming increasingly ubiquitous and provide ever richer functionality on mobile devices. At the same time, such devices often enjoy strong connectivity with more powerful machines ranging from laptops and desktops to commercial clouds. This paper presents the design and implementation of CloneCloud, a system that automatically transforms mobile applications to benefit from the cloud. The system is a flexible application partitioner and execution runtime that enables unmodified mobile applications running in an application-level virtual machine to seamlessly off-load part of their execution from mobile devices onto device clones operating in a computational cloud. CloneCloud uses a combination of static analysis and dynamic profiling to partition applications automatically at a fine granularity while optimizing execution time and energy use for a target computation and communication environment. At runtime, the application partitioning is effected by migrating a thread from the mobile device at a chosen point to the clone in the cloud, executing there for the remainder of the partition, and re-integrating the migrated thread back to the mobile device. Our evaluation shows that CloneCloud can adapt application partitioning to different environments, and can help some applications achieve as much as a 20x execution speed-up and a 20-fold decrease of energy spent on the mobile device.

/pdf/clonecloud-elastic-execution-between-mobile-device-and-cloud-17imp9i7uj.pdf

CloneCloud: elastic execution between mobile device and cloud

Environment models serve as important resources for an autonomous robot by providing it with the necessary task-relevant information about its habitat. Their use enables robots to perform their tasks more reliably, flexibly, and efficiently. As autonomous robotic platforms get more sophisticated manipulation capabilities, they also need more expressive and comprehensive environment models: for manipulation purposes their models have to include the objects present in the world, together with their position, form, and other aspects, as well as an interpretation of these objects with respect to the robot tasks. The dissertation presented in this article (Rusu, PhD thesis, 2009) proposes Semantic 3D Object Models as a novel representation of the robot’s operating environment that satisfies these requirements and shows how these models can be automatically acquired from dense 3D range data.

/pdf/semantic-3d-object-maps-for-everyday-manipulation-in-human-van9xaq8u7.pdf

Semantic 3D Object Maps for Everyday Manipulation in Human Living Environments

We describe the architecture, algorithms, and experiments with HERB, an autonomous mobile manipulator that performs useful manipulation tasks in the home We present new algorithms for searching for objects, learning to navigate in cluttered dynamic indoor scenes, recognizing and registering objects accurately in high clutter using vision, manipulating doors and other constrained objects using caging grasps, grasp planning and execution in clutter, and manipulation on pose and torque constraint manifolds We also present numerous severe real-world test results from the integration of these algorithms into a single mobile manipulator

/pdf/herb-a-home-exploring-robotic-butler-xvjoaw0vky.pdf

HERB: a home exploring robotic butler

The Internet suspend/resume model of mobile computing cuts the tight binding between PC state and PC hardware. By layering a virtual machine on distributed storage, ISR lets the VM encapsulate execution and user customization state; distributed storage then transports that state across space and time. This article explores the implications of ISR for an infrastructure-based approach to mobile computing. It reports on experiences with three versions of ISR and describes work in progress toward the OpenISR version

Pervasive Personal Computing in an Internet Suspend/Resume System

Towards seamless mobility on pervasive hardware

We present an autonomous multi-robot system that can collect objects from indoor environments and load them into a dishwasher rack. We discuss each component of the system in detail and highlight the perception, navigation, and manipulation algorithms employed. We present results from several public demonstrations, including one in which the system was run for several hours and interacted with several hundred people.

The robotic busboy: Steps towards developing a mobile robotic home assistant

The term mobile computing typically evokes images of a laptop, handheld, or wearable computer. However, the plummeting cost of hardware suggests that pervasive computing infrastructure could minimize the need to carry such devices in the near future. Personal computing will be available anywhere on demand, like light at the flip of a switch. Only when a user starts to use a computer will it acquire unique customization and state. When the user finishes using the computer, this customization and state will disappear from it. Thus, a user could travel hands-free yet be confident of making productive use of slivers of free time anywhere. For this to be a compelling vision from a user's viewpoint, the customization and state acquisition process must be accurate and nearly instantaneous. For it to be a viable business model, the management and system administration costs of pervasive deployments of machines must be low. Internet Suspend/Resume is a thick-client approach to mobility in which hardware virtualization and file caching are the keys to rapid personalization of anonymous hardware for transient use.

Casey J. Helfrich

Papers

HERB: a home exploring robotic butler

Pervasive Personal Computing in an Internet Suspend/Resume System

Towards seamless mobility on pervasive hardware

The robotic busboy: Steps towards developing a mobile robotic home assistant

Seamless mobile computing on fixed infrastructure