RT Component Based Network Distributed Monitoring System

Video stream, a typical way of providing the information of visualizations for the robotic system working, the environment of robot system and the state of the age and disabled, is indispensable in order to enable the remote user to get a better understanding of situation. In this paper, a RT Component-based network distributed monitoring system for human assistance robotic system was developed to improve the interaction among the users and local service robotic system. We developed robot system and network monitoring system using QuickCam Orbit cameras and demonstrated them from June 9 to June 19 at the 2005 World Exposition, Aichi, Japan. Improvements of network distributed monitoring system using IEEE1394 cameras with high performance and high resolution have been done in order to extend the application of system. We used Robot Technology Middleware (RTM) to develop cameras functional elements as "RT software components" that can be implemented by different programming languages, run in different operating system, or connected in different networks to interoperate. It is also easy to re-use existing modules thus facilitating network-distributed software sharing and improving the cost of writing and maintaining software.