Integrating Smart Resources in ROS-based systems to distribute services

Abstract

Mobile robots need to manage a lot of sensors and actuators using micro-controllers.To do complexes tasks, a highly computation central unit is also needed. In many cases, a robot is a intelligent distributed system formed with a central unit, which manages and distributes several specific tasks to some micro-controller embedded systems onboard.Now these embedded systems are also evolving to more complex systems that are developed not only for executing simple tasks but offering some advanced algorithmsjust as complex data processing, adaptive execution, or fault-tolerance and alarm rising mechanisms. To manage these types of embedded systems a paradigm, calledSmart Resource has been developed. Smart Resources topology has been raised to manage resources which execution relies on a physical embedded hardware. TheseSmart Resources are defined as a list of distributed services that can configure its execution in order to accomplish a context and quality requirements. In order to provide a more general implementation Smart Resources are integrated into the RobotOperating System (ROS). Paper presents a solution based on the Turtlebot platformrunning ROS. The solution shows how robots can make use of all the functions andmechanisms provided by the ROS and the distribution, reliability and adaptability ofthe Smart Resources. In addition it is also addressed the flexibility and scalability ofimplementation by combining real and simulated devices into the same platform